The Old Switcharoo
by Nigelcat1
Summary: After the Dementor incident on the Hogwarts Express, Harry is always exhausted and it seems that he might have changed a bit. He has, but so far no one noticed. As usual, there is a lot of bashing. This is a story I started in 2012 so I better submit it.
1. Chapter 1 - An Unnoticed Death

**THE OLD SWITCHAROO**

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 1 – The Unnoticed Death

Everybody had been so relieved when Harry had been saved. From what a hysterical Hermione Granger had said, the Dementor which attacked Harry on their way to start their third year at Hogwarts, had actually made contact with Harry's mouth for a few seconds when the new DADA Professor Lupin had conjured up a patronus stopping the Dementor and driving it away. Fortunately Professor Lupin's efforts had saved Harry before the boy's soul could be truly sucked out of his body.

The boy managed to be revived and was hastily given chocolate and then seemed to be no worse for wear and was soon back to his old self except for a natural feeling of confusion and weariness. Upon arrival at Hogwarts the boy was taken directly to the infirmary where he was pronounced to be in his usual condition upon his arrival back at school but shaken due to his very close call. He was then given some food and a dreamless sleep potion and was soon fast asleep.

Or so it was thought.

In reality the soul who was known as Harry Potter was in the body of the Dementor which had sucked it out hours before on the Hogwarts Express and was well on its way to giving the Dementor its favorite nourishment. Now the only soul that resided in the body of Harry Potter was the sliver that had attached itself to the boy's essence on October 31, 1981 – one Tom Marvolo Riddle.

The two souls had co-existed for nearly 12 years in the boy's body. Due to the magic suppression spells placed on the Dursley residence fueled by Harry Potter's own magic, the magic in both souls was not up to full potential. The famous "blood wards based on Lily Evans Potter's love and blood" which Dumbledore had told his followers provided protection for her son as long as he resided with Lily's blood or in other words, as long as Harry lived with his mother's sister, he would be untouchable to those who wished him harm, were nothing but a lie.

The self-proclaimed Leader of the Light had used some very old and very dark magic to keep the boy a virtual prisoner at the Dursleys. Only Dumbledore and anyone he personally chose could contact the boy or get through the wards. Dumbledore had sealed the Potters' Will on November 1, 1981 and appointed himself the child's magical guardian as, after all, his godfather Sirius Black, had betrayed his parents to Voldemort and would shortly be sent to Azkaban.

Harry had been left with just enough magic to save his life from the abuse and starvation to which he was subject due to the Dursleys' terrible treatment of him. Dumbledore had arranged it all. The Dursleys were paid a monthly stipend to bring the boy up to be "humble" as well as to make sure no one had contact with him from the magical world. He was also to be molded into a child who knew better than to fight back or to do well at anything. The Dursleys had laughed to themselves as they would have done all of the things ordered by Dumbledore for free but getting paid for it only sweeten the deal.

It had taken Riddle's soul quite some time to recover from the stress of being forced from his body and thrown into a baby's soul. This, coupled with the shock to the young Potter's body at the time of the occurrence and the immediate abusive treatment which started once the child was placed with the Dursleys, had taken its toll on Riddle. It had been several years before he could get his bearings so to speak and by then he was too entrenched in the boy's own soul to take over. It hadn't helped that the boy's magic was being drained not only by Dumbledore's wards but by the constant drain to keep Harry Potter alive. Apparently Dumbledore had underestimated the abuse the Dursleys were capable of giving even to a young, innocent baby.

It was because of all of this that Riddle had not been able to take complete control of the boy as what wizards call the magical core is in reality a person's soul. Since Riddle's was entwined with Potter's soul, it was a constant struggle for Riddle not to be completely overwhelmed by the dark blood wards. It had made him weak but not defeated.

It wasn't until Harry Potter finally went to Hogwarts that the effects of the blood wards started to dissipate, as he now needed to actually be able to use his magic if not in full but more than he normally would under the Dursley wards. It took the 9½ months of being away from the wards for Harry Potter to regain most of his magic but then he would be sent back to the Dursleys wards and the spells would be recharged and his magic hindered trying to keep himself alive.

Due to Dumbledore's machinations, no one from Magical Britain could gain access to the wards due to Dumbledore's guardianship and the "need to protect Potter from his enemies" and since it affected his magic only at the Dursleys there was no need for Dumbledore to place the more _traceable spells_ on the boy to limit his magical power.

Dumbledore had Madame Pomfrey under a special spell whereby she would only be able to notice and fix Harry Potter's injuries which happened to him at Hogwarts such as Quidditch mishaps, the hexes thrown at him by Slytherins, etc. Dumbledore had made it especially clear that NO ONE OTHER THAN POMFREY WAS TO GIVE HARRY POTTER MEDICAL TREATMENT. This was for Harry's protection as who knew if the child's enemies would imperious another healer if they were to treat Harry for his health.

But now Tom Riddle was in charge and at last, not only had a body but a plan, mostly thanks to the stupidity of the Ministry of Magic.

Tom had been able to observe Harry Potter's life and exploits at Hogwarts from his own point of view and not that of others or even Harry Potter himself. While Harry slept Tom was awake and therefore heard and saw more than Harry ever could, such as Dumbledore sneaking into the boy's dorm room, placing silencing spells all around and casting charms on the boy to act reckless, become lazy, to be grateful and extremely loyal to Dumbledore and to a lesser extent to the Weasleys.

Tom could even sense the potions which were also placed in the boy's morning pumpkin juice. Voldemort had gained an unofficial mastery in potions and was a veritable genius in that field as well as in many others. The only reason he relied on Severus Snape so much was because brewing potions took time, time which he did not have being Voldemort.

Thus, he could identify the potions given to Potter during his time at Hogwarts. Some strapped both his bodily and magical strength and were only stopped just before the school term ended and he would need to adjust to survive the Dursleys. There were potions to make him even shyer than he already was so that he would not be able to make friends other than those of Dumbledore's choosing. Others were directing him to hate and mistrust any and ALL Slytherins, most especially Snape and Draco Malfoy.

Then there was the good old end-of-the-year obliviation Dumbledore did on the boy whenever Harry found out about something which Dumbledore didn't want him to know. Tom had decided that all of this would stop – especially the obliviations. Harry's body was now in the control of Tom's magic so hopefully if he was still sent back to the Dursleys, he wouldn't be limited like Potter had been.

Of course according to the "plan" Tom would make sure he would not be sent back or under the control of the potions.


	2. Chapter 2 - Plans

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 2 - Plans

No one had suspected anything. Harry Potter just appeared to be listless and overly tired, but under the circumstances, that was to be expected. In reality, Tom was very busy. As Harry he did his homework much to the happiness and surprise of Granger and then went directly to bed. Tom did sleep but woke up around 1 a.m. and, wearing the invisibility cloak as well as placing some charms on the bed, snuck out of the Gryffindor Tower to start his extracurricular activities.

Tom Riddle knew Hogwarts like the back of his hand and he knew many of the secret passageways of the school. Therefore, he took the secret passageway to Honeydukes. There he cast a few spells so that the Honeydukes would never know he was there, he glamoured himself and then he flooed to Diagon Alley and Gringotts.

Gringotts was open 24/7 to serve all of their customers which consisted of not only wizards but Vampires, Werewolves, Hags and assorted other "lesser creatures" as the Ministry termed them. He took off the glamour just before he went into the bank and then went up to the Goblin on duty. He presented his key and took money out of his vault as well as arranging for a special appointment with the Manager of Gringotts – namely Ragnok. He mentioned only that he was Harry Potter and the words "fraud," "mismanagement of funds" and "public exposure" as well as secrecy since Albus Dumbledore was going to be sued by Harry Potter if what he thought was true was indeed a fact. If so, Gringotts would also be sued.

Naturally he received an appointment for the next night at 2 a.m. The Goblin had offered to contact Ragnok immediately but "Harry" had told him he had to get back to school and this would give Ragnok time to gather together all information concerning his account.

Actually Tom had other things to do so after leaving the bank he re-glamoured himself and snuck off to the Apothecary in Knockturn Alley to pick up some potion supplies then headed back to Hogwarts. After all, "Harry" was still a growing boy and needed more sleep especially since he had been given the potions in his morning pumpkin juice.

The next few nights Tom was very busy. He dedicated exactly three hours per night carrying out his plans before he went back to Hogwarts and caught up on his sleep.

As planned the next night he met with Ragnok. It seemed that although Dumbledore had proclaimed himself Harry's magical guardian, he never officially took control because if he had, he would still not be allowed to access the main Potter vaults. He could only control Harry's trust vault, which was how he paid the Dursleys for Harry's "care" and even that cost was limited. Instead, since he had sealed the Will he just told everybody he was the guardian as he was head of the Wizengamot, the ICW and Headmaster of Hogwarts, who automatically became the magical guardian for all Muggleborns or Muggle-raised students. That was why he had possessed Harry's key.

However, as the self-appointed magical guardian/Head of the Wizengamot he could and did have all correspondence concerning Harry Potter directed to him to check for "hexes and curses." However, since all correspondence was sent to Dumbledore, the Goblins never "officially knew" about all the presents, estates and other money-making ventures done in Harry Potter's name.

Dumbledore had ignored the law firm the Potters had used for centuries and instead established a relationship with a law firm of his choosing. Monetary presents were put into a special account entitled "The Potter Orphan Fund" which officially was to be used for those children who had been orphaned due to the war. It was supposed to fund the Hogwarts education for these orphans and was overseen by Albus Dumbledore.

Into this fund went any bequests left to Harry Potter by grateful magicals when they died. There were several people who left their entire estate to Harry due to the fact they had no one left. These estates and bequests were sold and during the past 12 years it had amounted to a considerable sum.

It was the same with the books written about Harry's supposed adventures as well as the line of toys sold in his name.

HOWEVER! The Goblins had somehow found out that none of the funds in the ever growing account had been utilized for paying the school fees of the so-called orphans. There was already a Hogwarts charity fund established for students who lacked sufficient funds to attend the school, but of the many orphans attending Hogwarts after the war, most had already been provided for by their relatives or were entitled to use the original charity fund. There was only one _certifiable orphan_ who was a beneficiary of this fund – Harry Potter.

This was odd as Tom/Harry was informed by Hagrid as well as by the Goblins that Harry Potter's tuition had been paid in full at the time of his birth. The only other students whose tuition had been paid out of this fund were the entire Weasley Family from Bill Weasley down to Ron and Ginny. Interesting!

Harry/Tom asked the Goblins to stop all payments to the Dursleys (who were still getting paid even when Harry was at Hogwarts) but not until he gave them the go ahead. They were also to investigate Vernon Dursley's tax records to see if he mentioned receiving this money as the Goblins said the money was sent in Pound Sterling cash to Dumbledore who in turn sent it to the secret address of Harry Potter's guardians.

Another night Tom snuck into Knockturn Alley to get another wand made. This wand would not have a trace on it and he could use it to cast the spells that he was intending to cast and didn't want to show up on the holly wand of Harry Potter. Besides, Dumbledore had placed a tracker on Potter's wand as well as some other charms which even Tom was unfamiliar with.

Tom had bought a new cauldron during his nightly excursions as apparently Harry Potter's cauldron also had hexes placed on it making it nearly impossible for the boy to brew a decent potion unless he was a highly capable student, which Snape had made sure he was not. Pity that, as Tom knew Harry had had the makings of a good Potioneer due to his heredity as well as his excellent cooking ability.

Tom would still be using Harry's old cauldron, as he couldn't have anybody getting suspicious – yet. He would use the new cauldron to brew the counter-potions to the ones he was illegally receiving.

The Goblins had given him permission to take out more than the usual sum he was allowed due to the discrepancies which had been discovered so he had more money to work with.

He bought some enchanted items and then strengthened them by adding his own parsel magic to them. One was a locket which prevented hexes being placed as well as alerting the wearer when a charm or spell had been placed on him/her. He wore it but had disillusioned it and also spelled it so that no one else could remove it except him. He also got a ring, which was also disillusioned and spelled for non-removal, which alerted when someone was being given a potion and the type of potion it was.

He also got the Harry's body a new pair of glasses. They were the same old ugly frames, however, the prescription was actually the correct one which Harry should have been wearing. Instead his eye sight had been purposely deteriorating for years as his Aunt had only got him a pair of glasses out of the charity bin at a thrift store. It had only been the boy's magic that enabled him to see as well as he did (which wasn't that great) but it had also further drained his magic.

The pair which Tom had got would also correct/adjust his vision and were spelled to be unbreakable. Also Tom had added his own enchantment on the glasses. He cast a charm which would prevent him from being obliviated. Few people knew this charm even existed, probably because it was one Tom had invented when he had been at school.

He had never trusted Dumbledore who not only told everyone just how dark, dangerous and evil Tom was, but had done his best to actually sabotage the boy. Dumbledore had tried to ruin Tom and if the truth were to be known, it was actually Dumbledore who had made Tom Riddle into Voldemort. But no one would believe it as Dumbledore was…well Dumbledore – defeater of Dark Lords, discoverer of potential dark wizards and self-proclaimed Leader of the Light.

But that was all in the past and could not be changed. However, now that Tom had a new, fairly innocent body, he would change the future.

So now with the Goblins working for him, his new supplies and amulets, a secret wand and various plans put into action, it was time for Harry Potter to get well.

Due to time constraints and the new influx of money, Tom bought some nutrition potions to start trying to correct the abuse Harry Potter had been subject to. It would be a gradual change and hopefully no one would notice until Harry got a "growth spurt" or started looking better. Unfortunately it would be necessary to see a healer on the sly, probably through the Goblins, as Harry needed most of his bones banished and regrown due to his abuse. His fingers had been broken so many times it was a wonder the boy could write as well (or in reality as badly) as he did.

There was so much to correct and Tom knew it would be painful but it had to be done if "Harry Potter" was to survive and prosper.

The one thing that Tom had not figured out was the how and why of Harry Potter and how he had caused Voldemort's death. It shouldn't have happened. Since he knew the "blood wards" had nothing to do with Lily Evans Potter, Dumbledore must have had a hand in his demise.

He had known about Lily Evans. Although she was a Mudblood, she was a very talented and powerful witch. However, she had been educated at Hogwarts under the direction of Albus Dumbledore who had done his very best to "change magic" or at least change the way magic was learned and practiced in Magical Britain.

Dark magic was shunned and Dumbledore had almost made it outlawed at one time, going so far at one time as trying to have "dark wizards" identified and "properly dealt with" with Dumbledore being the judge. But magic didn't work that way. As Tom always said there was no real dark or light magic just power and those not afraid to use it. Magic was basically magic but it had been people like Dumbledore who had campaigned to name it as dark or light.

Anyone magical with a brain knew that it was the way magic was used, whether it was dark or light. There were some very "ethical" and "good" dark wizards just as there were some "unethical" and "truly evil" light wizards. It was Tom's opinion that Dumbledore was an unethical and truly evil "light" wizard and although he could prove it and cite examples, no one would believe Dumbledore wasn't "good, noble and the lightest of the light" since that was how he showed himself to the world.

Therefore, it was logical to assume that despite Lily Evans being talented, intelligent and magically powerful, she would not have been taught dark magic at Hogwarts and would have been discouraged from ever learning it on her own. In fact, if Snape was to be believed, she was outraged at some of the books he had read because they were not "approved" by Dumbledore and were forbidden at Hogwarts. She had urged him to actually burn those books despite the fact that they were not really dark and, most importantly, they were some of the few heirlooms Eileen Prince Snape had managed to keep once she had been disowned for marrying a Muggle.

Then Evans had actually married James Potter, a Pure Blood and "Light" wizards who was, in actuality, a real bastard if ever there was one. Granted Snape had informed Voldemort all about Potter and Sirius Black, but then he was prejudiced against them due to their treatment of him. But other Death Eaters, such as Lucius Malfoy, had also confirmed that to the world at large Potter was the lightest of the light and had "converted" his cousin Sirius to the Light, but they would have made excellent Death Eaters had not Dumbledore gotten his claws into them and made them, unknowingly to James and Sirius at least, his faithful, blindly led minions.

Voldemort had somehow known the "prophecy" was fake and had ignored it or at least until "the whispers" had been started. No doubt Dumbledore's propaganda machine had started the rumor, much like the rumors concerning Grindelwald, that Dumbledore was the only person Voldemort feared and the only one who could, once again, defeat a Dark Lord.

However, that was quickly proven false as Voldemort was winning the war and Dumbledore had always managed to stage any encounter between the two of them – usually when Voldemort and his Death Eaters had been fighting and were exhausted both physically and magically and then Dumbles and some of his minions would show up and "save the day" when it was not really the case. However, the propaganda machine worked "its magic" and Voldemort and the Death Eaters were made to seem to be losing.

Of course, they were not, but the _Daily Prophet_ and the other European news sources proclaimed and continued the rumor that Voldemort would be defeated by Dumbledore. Even when it became evident to anybody not dead or completely stupid that this was false and the "Light" was definitely losing, Dumbledore still had quite a following and the confidence and backing of the Ministry.

But the Light was losing and losing fast, hence the "prophecy" and the grumblings of his Death Eaters beginning.

Voldemort was all for meeting Dumbledore on "the field of battle" so to speak to put an end to the war in single combat, just as long as Voldemort could set the terms of time and place. It was Dumbledore who was refusing to the single combat, but his machine made it out that it was Voldemort who was too afraid to meet the elderly Wizard on the field of honor.

When Voldemort had ignored the prophecy, it was now being whispered that Dumbledore knew that Voldemort was doomed to be defeated by an infant and was dodging the confrontation.

The prophecy was not known to the general public and, in fact, his Death Eaters shouldn't have known it but somehow they did. Severus was put under Veritaserum and proved to Voldemort's satisfaction that it was not him who had told the other Death Eaters and there were only a very few of the Inner Circle who knew about the prophecy.

Things were so bad that it was being whispered (loud enough for Voldemort to hear) that the Dark Lord was indeed a coward and could be even defeated by an infant, so why shouldn't he be deposed and someone else made the leader. Voldemort had had to horribly torture several Death Eaters and even killed a few, but still the whispers continued. Somehow Dumbledore had infiltrated Voldemort's organization and was forcing a confrontation.

In the end Voldemort had been forced to quell the rumors and go off to kill both of the prophesized children. He had chosen Harry Potter not because he was a half blood like himself – as his Death Eaters were unaware of that fact – but because Pettigrew had become a minion and now the secret keeper to the Potters so he would have access to the boy.

Voldemort made one concession to Severus Snape and he had intended to keep it. Snape had almost begged to spare Lily Evans (he still wouldn't call her Potter) because although a Mudblood, she had potential and power and could be of use to Voldemort as well as Snape wanting her for himself. Voldemort had agreed to kill James Potter and the boy but to stun Lily.

Things had gone as planned. James Potter was killed quickly as the fool had left his wand somewhere other than on his person. He had shouted for Lily to take the boy and run and she immediately ran up the stairs to get the boy. Apparently she also did not have her wand on her and there was nowhere to run as naturally Voldemort had put up anti-apparation and anti-floo wards, so unless she had a broom in the room and managed to grab the child and fly out the window within veritable seconds, they were doomed.

Voldemort went up the stairs, blew open the door and there was a frighten Lily standing in front of her child with no wand (and no sign of a broom or even an open window) screaming for him to have mercy and kill her but not her child. Typical for a mother but untypical for an evil Dark Lord, Voldemort told the "girl" to step aside. She refused and kept screaming and begging for mercy.

He gave her three chances to step aside but she would not. He had every intention of stunning her but then for some unexplained reason which even today he could not understand he felt his wand shaking and then found himself casting the killing curse. She fell immediately and it took him a few seconds to realize what he had done - seemingly against his will – before he turned to the boy.

He was a sweet looking boy who had apparently just woke up and was confused at what was going on. His mother's screams and then falling down on the floor either didn't upset him yet or he had for some unexplained reason, he wasn't alert enough to notice. Then the boy actually smiled at Voldemort. Voldemort _almost smiled back_ until he heard a voice saying that he must kill the child.

So he had cast the killing curse which had bounced back off the child and hit him instantly disintegrating his body and leaving only his wand, his robes and a pile of dust. A part of his soul left his destroyed body and formed into the wraith-like creature which would eventually possess Quirrell ten years later and now left the room and went into the night in pain and confusion.

Apparently another part of his soul had also broken out of his body and had hit the child and had embedded itself in the child's head creating the famous lightning bolt scar. This was now what remained of Harry Potter other than his abused body. It had created a Horcrux and this was the big mystery.

To create a Horcrux was not an easy thing. It took preparation, intent and certain rituals performed ahead of time and needed a specifically charmed object to place the piece of soul in. Although these preparations could be done in advance they had to be done before the sacrifice of a human life could take place to make the dark magic. Voldemort had not done any of this beforehand so how had this piece of his soul broken off from his original soul and entered into the body of the infant who had apparently destroyed his body?

Also, the killing curse killed a person leaving the body intact. Since the curse had rebounded off the child and then hit Voldemort, he should have collapsed to the floor like all the other victims of the curse and his body should not have disintegrated to dust.

And why were his robes not destroyed along with his body? Apparently the clothes he was wearing under his robes disintegrated, such as his underwear, shirt, trousers, socks and even his shoes _**but not his outer robe**_. And his wand had survived which had been in his hand when he had been hit with the rebounded curse. There simply wasn't an explanation for the things which happened.

Something had happened which neither Lily Evans Potter nor Lord Voldemort had done and this was what Tom/Harry now had to find out.


	3. Chapter 3 - Keeping Up the Facade

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 3 – Keeping Up the Façade

It had been a few weeks since school started and eventually "Harry Potter" had recovered enough to stop sleeping the 10-11 hours a night he had been doing for two weeks. Tom noticed that the potion which made him tired had ceased being administered to his pumpkin juice to get him "back to normal." He had no doubt that the potion would be started again in another week or so.

He went to his classes and did his very best to be mediocre just as Harry Potter had always done both at the Dursleys because he couldn't be better than the lazy, idiotic fool which was Dudley Dursley, and again at Hogwarts so that Ron Weasley would be his friend. The only thing he changed was that before he started goofing off, he did his homework first "to get it out of the way in case I fall asleep again" as he had told Hermione and Ron.

Hermione had been delighted but Ron hadn't been happy until Harry stopped going to sleep by 8 p.m. and then finally started goofing off with Ron. It was his new resolution, as he told Ron, to make Hermione happy. Harry would then play chess with Ron or exploding snap with Ron and others.

Tom played chess with Ron Weasley but unlike Harry, Tom knew why Ron always won against Harry and others. Ron always played with his chess set because it had been handed down to him by his late Uncle Fabian Prewett and by playing with the set he honored his uncle's memory. However, despite how nice and noble that sounded the real reason was the chess set was enchanted.

Ron always played black because he knew that the white pieces were normal but the black pieces had confundus charms on them. Although Ron could play chess rather well, the charms caused the other player to be confused and not make good decisions. That was the main reason that Hermione Granger, herself an excellent chess player, would always lose to Ron. She could not figure out why and so not to be constantly defeated by Ron of all people, she stopped playing with him much to his delight.

Since Tom had the amulets he would not be affected by the charms and had toyed with the idea of actually winning at least one game just to annoy Weasley. Even when he had been just a piece of soul in Harry's head he could still read an unprotected, untrained mind quite easily and had always read both Ron and Hermione on many occasions. It had always angered him that Ron was using a charmed chess set on a person who didn't know how to play chess at all and had only been given two quick lessons in playing the game before Ron announced him "trained" and then proceeded to trounced his supposed best mate.

Ron's mind showed that he was thrilled that he could put down Harry Potter so completely and continuously at this game. Tom also knew that Ron purposely denied information to Harry when the boy asked him about Wizarding culture or gave incorrect information. Usually when Harry couldn't find it in a book (since there were few books on Wizarding culture in the Hogwarts library courtesy of Dumbledore), he eventually asked Neville. Then at the end of the year, usually when Harry was recovering from the injuries received that year, Dumbledore would obliviate the information Harry had learned from Neville and placed a charm on Harry to not ever ask the questions again, from Neville at least.

Ron also made sure that Harry didn't make friends outside of Gryffindor and had only allowed Hermione to be their friend because she helped them with homework and, in many cases involving Ron, actually did it for him. Ron knew that Hermione wouldn't allow Harry to make friends either as she feared there would come a day when he wouldn't need her and would drop her.

Hermione really liked Harry as a person and a friend – the only real friend she had. Tom knew that she really didn't like Ron because he was mean, lazy, overbearing, argumentative and very, very hurtful and suffered from foot-in-mouth disease. He also had extremely disgusting table manners (or lack thereof) and Mrs. Weasley was a loud mouth, domineering, controlling, bigoted and annoying individual. Ginny she tried to be friends with and although the Twins were the nicest of the Weasleys at school, their constant pranking unnerved her. But if she wanted to continue to be Harry's friend, she had to put up with the Weasleys as Ron had made that fact very, very clear to her.

Quidditch practices had started and although Harry had missed the first few Oliver Wood made the boy practice even harder than before so he could catch up. Fortunately Tom was good on a broom but had never played Quidditch at school as he couldn't afford a broom, couldn't use the dreadful school brooms and the Purebloods like to keep the Quidditch team under their personal control. Besides, he had always more important things to do at school than practice and play a stupid sport.

They quickly won the first game as "Harry" had his new glasses so could see a lot better and Tom still had things to do and didn't want to waste time extending the length of the game. Besides the weather was very bad and Dementors were lurking about and things just didn't feel right. Therefore, just to be safe, he cast a wandless, silent point-me charm and found the snitch before the really heavy rain started.

He did however have to attend the winning party in Gryffindor, stayed for a while but then once again pleaded exhaustion. He had a very important appointment with Gringotts at 1 a.m. that night which would be very beneficial if the Goblins had been able to accomplish his request.

Sirius Black was still on the loose. Tom knew he was innocent and that Pettigrew was Ron's rat. The Goblins were to contact Amelia Bones and inform her they had received an anonymous tip that Sirius Black was innocent, Pettigrew was the betrayer of the Potters and someone might be able to produce Pettigrew to be put under Veritaserum, confess and prove Black's innocence.

If Bones agreed to receive Pettigrew and sneak him into a trial and prove Black's innocence, then Black could come forward, be proclaimed innocent, reinstated as Lord Black and take his rightful place as Harry Potter's guardian. Then Harry/Tom would be free from the Dursleys AND Dumbledore and could begin his real plans.

The Goblins informed Tom that Bones had agreed and therefore Tom would now need to capture Pettigrew, take him to Gringotts and let the Goblins and Bones handle everything. Tom could always blame the rat's disappearance on Hermione's new cat as the half-kneazle had already sensed the rat was not all it seemed to be and was constantly trying to get it.

Within a week the headlines of the _Daily Prophet_ delivered the amazing news that Sirius Black had been framed, Pettigrew was the real betrayer of the Potters and if Black were to turn himself in he could be finally given the trial he had been denied and be a free man.

Dumbledore had been furious. Black being in Azkaban had been a big part of his plans to control Harry Potter. Now Black had turned himself in to the Goblins and then Amelia Bones. Everything went quickly and in another week Black was freed, compensated with large amounts of cash and being privately treated, both physically and mentally, for all the abuse he had endured in Azkaban.

Dumbledore had been kept away from access to Black and was only informed of the trial at the last minute so that he could not "arrange things" his way. Black had given an interview to the _Prophet_ stating that the only thing he wanted now, other than getting his health back, was to raise his godson, Harry Potter, and make up for all the lost years.

All Dumbledore was able to do to stall Black getting custody of Harry was to refuse access to the boy until Black was certified as being both physically and mentally competent with Dumbledore being the judge of that competency _**through his appointed healers**_. Unfortunately for Dumbles, Fudge had denied that request as he was now cosseting up to Lord Black.

Sirius Black was back with a vengeance and was determined to get Harry. Naturally Dumbledore was still waiting for the competency hearing which he had managed to delay until after Christmas. Black was allowed to meet with Harry at Hogwarts for one day during the Christmas holidays. It was better than nothing.

There was a joyous reunion between Sirius and Harry. Tom had acted surprised and had been delighted when the Goblins had managed to talk Sirius into bringing Rita Skeeter with him to witness the first meeting between Black and Harry and report it to the interested public. Sirius hadn't wanted to do it as he wanted a private first meeting with his godson, but the Goblins pointed out it would annoy Dumbledore to no end and serve to speed up the competency hearing if it could show that Dumbledore was trying to interfere with Sirius getting custody.

The Goblins had showed Black the files concerning the Potter Orphan Fund as well as a few other interesting things, such as the Potters' Will being sealed as well as Harry's placement with the Dursleys. Black had been furious to say the least and when the Goblins had suggested that perhaps Dumbledore's self-proclaimed guardianship of Harry Potter should be very carefully investigated, Black had agreed immediately. He would be willing to do anything to help him get custody of his godson as soon as possible.

Everything was going well for Tom and when Ron had a huge fight with Hermione over his missing rat, Tom saw an opening for another good thing to happen.

There had been no mention to the public of Pettigrew being a rat animagus and therefore there was no reason to suspect Ron's rat to be Pettigrew. Since his rat had definitely disappeared and could not be found even on the Marauders' Map (something which Tom had known nothing about), the only logical conclusion, according to Percy, was that the rat was dead and probably eaten. Naturally Ron had accused Crookshanks and Tom took the opportunity to place a thought in Ron's mind that he should avenge his pet by killing Hermione's cat.

It had been "Harry" who had caught Ron in the act of attempting to kill poor Crookshanks and Harry had rescued the cat and yelled at Ron. He then took the cat, who had been hit a few times by an angry Ron before being rescued, back to Hermione and told the girl what had happened.

Naturally she was infuriated and Harry told her she had every right to be. The cat was taken to Hagrid for healing and then both Hermione and Harry went to confront Ron, accompanied by McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and noted cat animagus. A large, loud, rather bitter fight commenced the result of which was Ron getting 50 points taken from Gryffindor and a week of detention with Filch.

Harry/Tom took this opportunity to publically denounce Ron before the entire Gryffindor common room and even suggesting that he would be reviewing their friendship as "How could you hurt an innocent creature? Even if for some reason Crookshanks did eat your rat, he was just being a cat and acting in accordance with his nature. Besides, you don't know if it even was Crookshanks as there are many cats roaming around in Hogwarts and there are at least five other cats besides Crookshanks in Gryffindor alone."

"Actually there are seven other cats in Gryffindor," McGonagall added. "There were eight but another cat disappeared last week and hasn't been seen since. Do you know anything about Miss Morton's cat Purry, Mr. Weasley?"

Ron didn't and luckily for him the cat was found about a week later but his house mates still looked at him with distrust. Tom/Harry now had Ron off his back at least for a while and hopefully, once Sirius Black got custody, maybe even forever. He would like it very much if he never had to go to the Weasleys ever again.

Now Tom could "get to know Neville better" as well as his other dorm mates and hopefully even make some friends (or in his mind contacts/allies) in others houses. And most important of all, Dumbledore wouldn't be able to do anything about it, especially once Harry/Tom had Black wrapped around his finger.

So on December 31, 1993, which would be Tom Riddle's 67th birthday, Harry/Tom laid in his bed in Gryffindor, reviewing all of the things which had happened since the start of "Harry's" third year at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter's soul was who really knew where and Tom Riddle's soul now possessed the last Potter heir's body and place in society. The Dementors were gone, Tom was healing Harry's abused body and Sirius Black was free and about to get custody of his "godson" and most importantly, he would be Dursley free at last and be able to start getting revenge on them.

He was destroying Dumbledore's plans and his control over Harry Potter and hopefully Tom would see to ruining Dumbledore's reputation and getting him ousted from his many important positions. He had a new secret wand and still retained his memories and his own powerful magic even if it was in Harry's body.

Once Black got complete custody, Tom/Harry would be able to live the life of a true Pure Blood – having expensive clothes, books, living in luxury and hopefully getting to travel and do some more research into magic. Maybe he could even talk Black into transferring him to Durmstrang where he could get some practice in the dark arts (even though he already knew them).

He had gotten some very nice presents from Black starting with a new Firebolt and Black was having a special tailor come all the way from the magical shopping center in Milan, Italy, to fit the raggedy boy with handmade, finely tailored robes and even Muggle clothing befitting of the boy's status.

Black had also found out that the Weasley Twins had custody of the Marauders' Map and had made the Twins give the map to Harry/Tom since it was really his by rights. The Twins had been delighted and honored even when they found out who the Marauders really were. Fortunately for Tom, the map had been created to show a person's body, so his "dot" read as Harry Potter since it would always be the real body of Harry Potter. This meant that the blood of the Potters really ran in his veins so that if he ever took a heritage test, it would show the Potter heritage.

Yes, things were looking up for Tom/Harry and no one was the wiser nor would they ever if Tom/Harry had anything to say about it.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Best Summer Ever

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 4 – The Best Summer Ever

Dumbledore had fought tooth and nail but by the end of third year, Sirius was declared physically and mentally competent to get custody of his godson. Sirius met Harry at the station and despite him having the legal custody of Harry, Dumbledore had still tried to convince him that it was in the best interest of Harry to return to the Dursleys for the summer.

It was "Lily's sacrifice" and "the blood wards" and anything else he could use to convince Sirius not to have custody of Harry but merely visits and days out. There were actually compulsion charms placed on Sirius but since he now wore the lordship ring of the Black Family, he noticed the charm immediately and had them removed.

Dumbledore had made the Dursleys not only show up at the station but to actually be waiting at the magical exit to grab Harry while Dumbledore distracted Sirius. The Dursleys usually stayed as far away from the magical exit as possible and merely waited for Harry to find them. But Dumbledore had told the Dursleys that if they didn't take Harry back not only would they lose the protection of the blood wards but the payments for Harry's upkeep would stop.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Sirius did not come alone as Amelia Bones was also there to pick up her niece Susan and she was accompanied by two Aurors. It still didn't stop Dumbledore who was talking to Sirius while trying to lead him away from the exit, but Sirius wasn't moving and ignoring Dumbledore and eagerly waiting for Harry to come out of the train.

Harry had been prepared beforehand and had invited Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott to share his compartment with Hermione and Neville. As they got off the train, Harry headed for the exit into the Muggle part of the station as Sirius was going to drive him home in the new, expensive Muggle car he had purchased. As he walked out with all four of his companions there was Vernon Dursley waiting for him at the exit.

Vernon tried his best to look inconspicuous. He even wore a hat and had it pulled down as far as possible. Petunia lurked nearby just in case Vernon had trouble getting to the freak so that she could swoop down and grab Harry while Vernon distracted everybody.

However, to further complicate Dumbledore's plans, there was no way that in any situation whether Muggle and especially Magical, that Vernon and/or Petunia Dursley could look inconspicuous and/or just blend it.

Vernon was the size of a walrus, had that ridiculous mustache which he had recently started to wax, and just reeked of pomposity and irritability. He wore fairly expensive clothing which he bought off the rack and then had tailored to fit. But even a Saville Row tailor, while excellent in his craft, couldn't work miracles and Vernon couldn't have afforded them. Besides, just as soon as he bought new clothes he gained more weight so that he always looked like 13 lbs. of potatoes stuffed into a 10 lb. sack.

Petunia was entirely too skinny, had an overly long neck, had dirty blonde hair which she touched up herself so that the neighbors wouldn't notice she lightened her hair (they did), dressed in what she thought was the height of fashion and good, moderate taste but only succeeded in looking dowdy. Even when she splurged for an expensive outfit, usually for some important occasion for Vernon's work, she looked frumpy and dull looking.

She didn't know that her "friends" and neighbors referred to the Dursleys as Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sprat. Every time one of the Dursleys referred to Dudley as their "bouncing baby boy" it was snidely remarked that if he ever bounced into the side of a castle wall he would probably knock it down.

But here were the Dursleys - minus Dudley who had better things to do than pick up his freaky cousin - lurking about waiting to pounce and grab and scurry away into the heavy London traffic and back to their lair to imprison their milch cow for another summer.

Harry was exiting just behind Susan and Hannah when Vernon spotted him and pounced. At least he tried to pounce but instead he was immediately stunned by one of the plainclothes Muggleborn police officers which Amelia had arranged to meet them at the station. One of the officers then yelled "that man must have had a heart attack" and then quickly went to "aid him" while Petunia let out a screech and hurried over to her husband.

Vernon was then taken away by an ambulance with Petunia by his side, all thoughts of their freaky nephew out of their minds. Instead of the hospital, Vernon and Petunia were taken directly to Scotland Yard and held until the results of the investigation were brought in.

Unknown to Dumbledore and especially not the Dursleys, Harry had the Goblins inform Sirius all about his time at the Dursleys and the Goblins had enough "dirt" regarding Vernon's taxes to have him arrested.

Also unknown to Dumbledore and the Dursleys, after they left to pick up their nephew, other Muggleborns wizards who, not finding work in Magical Britain, had gone back to their Muggle roots and joined Scotland Yard. The two officers, accompanied by some Muggle-clothed Aurors and special Ministry investigators, had obtained a special Muggle search warrant to enter the Dursleys home to get evidence of the abuse of their nephew.

Using both Muggle and Magical means, the cupboard under the stairs was thoroughly investigated as was the smallest bedroom given to Harry which had the infamous cat flap and numerous locks on the door as well as the bars which Vernon had reinstalled after Harry's rescue by the Weasleys. The special investigators, one of which was an Unspeakable, checked out the famous blood wards and carefully noted exactly what they were comprised of and what they really did.

Just to be thorough, the Scotland Yard detectives then went around the neighborhood to ask questions concerning all the Dursleys and their treatment of their nephew. When the "Dursley scandal" broke, it was the talk of the neighborhood for months and even became part of what passed for Little Whining folk lore. Not only was it in all the papers, it made the national news and a few of the news programs did entire stories on abuse of children making sure to cite the Dursleys as the worse example.

The Dursleys became very famous but not as they envisioned. Vernon was jailed for tax evasion as well as abuse. Petunia was also jailed but had pleaded she hadn't really wanted to harm her nephew but she had to go along with her sadistic husband's demands otherwise she would be abused. She was sentenced to prison but not nearly as long as Vernon.

Sensing blood in the water, many of the children who had been bullied by Dudley and his gang came forth and gave testimony against them. Vernon had been paying large bribes to the local police and the primary school his son and nephew attended to look the other way concerning Dudley's behavior and to blame Harry and to overlook Harry's abuse. Here was another great scandal which resulted in very thorough investigations at the school and police department, several individuals were fired, fined and in some cases, such as the Headmaster of the primary school and a person friend of Vernon's, sent to prison.

Within a year a competent investigative reporter had written a book entitled, _Scandal in Surrey, the Cover-up of One Orphan's Pain_. The book was not only an international best seller but it was recommended reading at all schools and police organizations.

Sirius picked up Harry/Tom at the station and they both had enjoyed seeing the Dursleys not only being arrested but also Dumbledore's plans going awry. Sirius thought that "he had won" but Tom knew better considering this was Dumbledore. He knew that Dumbledore considered this a momentary setback and would be scheming throughout the entire summer to get Harry back under his control.

"Prongslet, you are going to have the best summer ever," Sirius had happily told Harry. Tom expected to have a very good summer, as well as getting Sirius under his control.

It had started out fine and lasted for about a week. The first thing, at Harry's request, was to floo to St. Mungo's where Harry underwent a complete physical. Sirius had been horrified when Harry's condition was revealed. Steps were taken immediately to correct the physical abuse which both the Dursleys and the first years at Hogwarts had inflicted on Harry.

Harry had to get most of his bones vanished and regrown, especially his fingers and many ribs, which had been broken many times and self-healed by the boy's magic. Then he was started on various nutrient potions and corrective potions.

Dumbledore had taken the precaution of removing all of the charms which he had placed on the boy and a very strong flushing potion had been administered to him the day before he left school. These precautions were taken just in case the Dursleys didn't manage to get Harry away from the station. Thus, Dumbledore couldn't be blamed for anything and he could always reapply them at the start of next term.

The first sign that something was wrong was when the medical treatments started. Sirius wanted everything done as soon as possible so that he and Harry could start having fun and make up for the lost years. The healer in charge had suggested that Harry remain in the hospital for two weeks in order to do the bone regrowth as painlessly as possible. "One section at a time, then a day to recover before the next session to start," the healer advised.

But that wasn't good enough for Sirius who wanted it done NOW. Therefore, despite the healer's best efforts to talk him out of it, as much bone growth would be done as possible on a given day to speed things up. Sirius had rationalized it all to Harry saying, "It's going to hurt anyway so better to get as much done as possible and suffer for a week then for two weeks. The faster you get better, the quicker we can start playing."

It had been a very hurtful week and it didn't help matters much when all that Harry wanted to do was be left alone to deal with his pain as since he wasn't being given a day to recuperate before starting another round of vanishing/regrowth, he couldn't take any pain potions since that would interfere with the skel-grow working properly.

So there he was, lying in bed, feeling very uncomfortable, achy and just plain miserable but instead of the rest he so desperately wanted and needed, there was Sirius regaling him with tales of the Marauders and all of the funny pranks they had pulled during school.

It was during this time of enforced togetherness that Tom found out that both Lucius and Severus had not told him the entire truth concerning Black and Potter. They were much worse than he had heard from his Death Eaters.

Severus was biased against the Marauders as he was one of their main targets throughout the entire seven years. In fact, they were probably the main reason Severus joined the Death Eaters because of their constant persecution and Dumbledore's turning a blind eye to all of their "antics" as well as ordering the other teachers to do the same.

Lucius had admitted to Voldemort that he was able to recruit several students due to Dumbledore's treatment of not only the Slytherins but the two other houses and his protection of the Marauders had served to exacerbate things.

Now Sirius was telling Harry about the pranks they had played on other students. Some of them were actually funny (as long as one was not the victim of the prank) but others, especially in the last few years of school were downright nasty and cruel.

"The more magic we learned the better and more inventive our pranks became," Sirius had happily bragged to his godson. "In fact, we even did _a few favors_ for Dumbledore with our pranking," he had smirked. "I won't tell you any of those yet, or at least not until we are in a more secure place, but I know you will be surprised and proud to know just how awesome, creative and inventive your old dad and godfather were."

Even though the body in the bed was Harry Potter's, the soul was still Tom Riddle/ Voldemort's and even he was a bit shocked to find out about some of the pranks done not only to Severus and Lucius but to the members of the other houses. He was almost wary about learning of the things which could not be said in public, even with silencing charms Sirius had placed in Harry's private hospital room.

At last the treatments were over with and a series of potions were prescribed and they were ready to leave St. Mungo's. There was one treatment which Sirius had refused permission to be done. Apparently, Harry had inherited the Potter poor eyesight and the years of abuse hadn't helped, especially since he never really had a decent eye exam and given glasses out of the charity bin by Petunia.

However, now that he was getting treatments not only would the deterioration be slowed, he was informed that there was now a series of potions coupled with special charms which could lead to Harry not having to wear glasses within a year. Harry, naturally, had been all for it, but Sirius had not.

"James was fine wearing glasses despite his poor sight," he informed Harry. "I noticed that you don't look as much like James when you aren't wearing your glasses (which Harry hadn't been doing due to being in bed and feeling miserable) and resemble your mother more, especially with having her eyes. So to honor your dad, why don't you just keep wearing glasses and having the prescription updated every year," Sirius had said with a smile on his face.

Harry objected and even the healer had recommended that he have the eye treatments as not only would his eyes improve but it would prevent them from getting worse and it was better not to wear glasses if one could help it.

Sirius would not be moved and Harry would keep wearing glasses as that was what James would do, and thus so would Harry.

Between the enforced speed of the medical treatments and the denial of the eye treatments as well as hearing about all of the vicious pranks which Sirius was so proud, Tom started getting an uneasy feeling about Black. Apparently he was trying to mold Harry into a clone of James as much as possible instead of accepting the boy as he was. It also seemed to Tom that Sirius was ignoring the problem of Harry's abuse and was going to "cure" him by his idea of "having fun" and making him more James-like. All of this did not bode well.

Well Tom had the summer to recover and review the situation. Maybe he was mistaken (although he doubted it).


	5. Chapter 5 - Sex, Sex, Sex

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 5 – Sex, Sex, Sex

Sirius had been horrified that Harry, son of Prongs and godson of Padfoot, didn't pull pranks. Harry had explained that considering his life at the Dursleys and the three years at Hogwarts, he never really had the time or inclination to prank. "Besides," he had told Sirius and Remus, who had been invited on the _best summer ever_ , "the Weasley Twins were the primary pranksters at Hogwarts and pranked very well."

"Well that was definitely going to change as soon as possible!" he had been told by Sirius. Harry was going to spend the summer having lessons not only in pranking but advanced pranking, general mischief and the special education that the son of a Marauder should have been having since birth.

"We have a lot of time to make up and you will be having a crash course," Sirius said. "I guarantee that when you return to Hogwarts in September, no one will recognize you. You will be an entirely different person – the person you should have been raised to be."

At the start Tom had thought (or had at least hoped) Sirius meant that Harry would be having a crash course in the Pureblood upbringing that was his birthright. By an entirely different person, Tom thought he meant that Harry would return trained in the manners, customs, entitlements and all the little niceties which Tom, as an orphaned child and thought to be a Muggleborn, had had to learn the hard way to be able to fit in with his new world and heritage. Harry would return not only healthy, but well-dressed and finally informed and trained as the Lord which he was born to be.

However, the things Tom knew that Harry should and must learn were not the same things which Sirius Black had decided were truly important. In fact, the crash course consisted of things more in tune with becoming the lazy, pleasure-loving, arrogant and dissolute student which James Potter and Sirius Black had been during their school days.

When Sirius said he was going to make Harry more James-like, he was not joking. He was completely "Sirius" about the lessons he was going to give Harry.

Also it was Sirius' opinion that the only way for Harry to get over all of the abuse he had suffered was to do the important things – pranking, fun, drinking _**and sex**_.

"James and I were experts in those things and you are going to be exposed to all of the fun and experiencesAssju which we had. We have a lot to make up for so we will start with traveling."

Thus the summer consisted of traveling, which ordinarily Harry/Tom would have enjoyed, but it was Sirius' idea of traveling, which consisted of going to various seaside resorts, where young, nubile women wearing (or hardly wearing) the skimpiest of swim suits were to be found.

The three wizards would lie on the beach and after ogling the girls and women, Sirius would choose the prey and then start shamelessly flirting while Harry was supposed to watch and learn from the master.

Harry/Tom thought he would not have survived (or Sirius would be dead) if it hadn't been for Remus Lupin. Remus explained to Harry just how bad Azkaban was and what Sirius had endured during the 12 years he had rotted away. "Besides instructing you," Remus had said, "Sirius needs to let off a little steam and enjoy life."

"I figured that was really it," Harry had told Remus. "I know he wants to spend time with me but he also wants to make up for his imprisonment and he needs this more than I do," Harry sagely informed Remus.

"However, I am still only thirteen and don't get me wrong, I think that I like girls and that I am not gay or anything like that, but I am just not ready to be 'a player' and act the way Sirius wants me to. I just want to spend time with you two, have some reasonable fun and get my health back. I would also like to learn all of the things concerning my heritage which were denied to me thanks to Dumbledore's meddling."

Remus had been impressed with Harry's mature outlook and understanding. He and Sirius had disagreed with what Harry needed, at least for the moment. So while Sirius made up for lost time by seducing every woman in sight, Remus had started giving Harry some of the lessons concerning the magical world which he should have been getting.

However, after about a month of Sirius sowing many wild oats, he decided to concentrate on his godson's "proper" education. Besides he was also totally exhausted.

"It looks like Moony is making a bookworm out of you," Sirius had informed Harry. "While that is good up to a point, considering you are recovering from your prior ill health (Sirius didn't want to use the word abuse as that made him feel guilty for all of Harry's suffering), you are well enough in my opinion for some more useful and definitely more enjoyable lessons," Sirius had smirked.

Apparently both James and Sirius had lost their virginity before the start of their fourth year the old fashioned way. They had both been taken to a "specialist" by Sirius' Uncle Alphard to properly learn the way to use a woman. Yep, Sirius wanted to take Harry to Circe Zabini a well-known seductress who specialized in introducing young wizards to the pleasures of sex.

Tom knew all about Circe Zabini. She was the daughter of a wizard and a succubus. She was mostly human, but had retained some of her mother's powers and used those talents to the very best advantage. She was also the _grandmother_ of Blaize Zabini's mother Aphrodite Zabini, the noted black widow. Circe's father had been the last of his line so all of Circe's descendants, who until the birth of Blaize had all been females, had to continue using the surname of Zabini even when marrying.

Although the succubus gene had been gradually diluted, Aphrodite Zabini still had enough left of her succubus heritage to be a wizard magnet. She also had had a lot of specialized knowledge of the arts of seduction as well as the corresponding charms and potions to make certain that she was and would remain irresistible. Hence her ability to find a rich and/or powerful wizard, make them fall hopelessly under her spell despite her well-deserved reputation, marry them and then, when she had tired of them or they had outlived their usefulness, somehow they mysteriously died and nothing could be traced back to Aphrodite.

Despite being a great grandmother twice over (Blaize had an older sister who attended Beauxbatons and gave Fleur Delacour competition as "The Siren of Beauxbatons"), Circe had retained not only her famous beauty but her equally renown youthful appearance. This was one of the reasons she gave _special instruction_ to young wizards.

Circe made her living as the owner and proprietress of the famous House of Pleasure located in Paris, France. In actuality it was a very high class brothel serving both a Muggle and Magical clientele as long as those seeking the services available were very, very wealthy. The establishment had both a Muggle and Magical staff from all over the world and the services rendered were not to be had anywhere else.

At this stage of her long life, Circe just acted as the Madame/Manager except for the _initial instruction ritual_ as she termed the taking of a young wizard's (or in some cases witch's) innocence. It was this ritual which kept her youthful.

Unknown to most of wizard kind (except those who had studied as widely and varied as someone like Tom Riddle had done), powerful magic was released when a magical lost his or her sexual innocence. It could be used in a number of special rituals such as increasing one's magical power.

For someone like a half-succubus such as Circe, this innocence had many uses, like retaining youth and beauty. Thus, when Circe introduced a young wizard to the delights of sex, she also cast special charms and gave the eager and totally unsuspecting wizard a unique potion in a glass of wine to "relax him" before the lessons started.

In actuality, the young magical was _initiated_ and charmed to believe that this first sexual experience was and would always be the very best sex he or she had ever had. It also gave the young one the suggestion that now they were now fantastic lovers. At the end of the session, for an extra fee, the knowledge of a few special charms were sold to the young magical to be used to convince an unwilling partner to be seduced as well as one that could be used if said partner hadn't been satisfied, to seem that they had just had the best sex ever.

All in all it was a very expensive experience if nothing else. The _initiation_ price was outrageous but considered well worth the money and the extra charm knowledge was also very steep. But the most costly part of the initiation was magical. It took a part of the wizard/witch's magic. Granted it was only a small percentage averaging between 1 to 3% depending on the whim and the spells cast, but it was still a part of their magic which could never be gotten back and they had no knowledge that it had been taken.

Nobody would ever take any of Tom/Harry's magic, bind it, use it for the schemes of another or do anything to benefit anybody or anything other than Tom/Harry.

Of course, Tom couldn't tell Sirius what he knew about Circe Zabini, but he could and did say no to Sirius' suggestion.

"I want to wait for someone special," Harry had said, but Sirius made fun of that idea by countering that the 'someone special' would appreciate it more if Harry knew what to do and did it oh so well. He also ignored both Harry and Remus mentioning Harry's ongoing recovery but that wouldn't stop Sirius.

"Both James and I benefitted greatly by the experience and so will you. YOU WILL THANK ME AFTER IT IS DONE."

Harry still refused and Remus agreed with the boy's desire or rather lack thereof.

"JAMES WOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOU," Sirius had shouted back.

"I'm not James and I, at least in this point of my life, have no wish to have sex with some old hag."

"WELL YOU ARE GOING TO!"

A shouting match between Sirius, Harry and Remus lasted for several minutes until Sirius brought out the big guns.

"If you don't do this, I won't take you to the Cup Finals" Sirius had shouted.

"I don't care."

"HOW COULD YOU NOT CARE ABOUT GOING TO THE CUP FINALS? JAMES WOULD…"

"I AM NOT JAMES" Harry had shouted back. "I won't be bullied and forced into doing something so inconsequential to me at this point in my life and if you had ANY RESPECT OR CONSIDERATION for me, you wouldn't force this on me."

Remus had agreed with Harry and began his own chastisement of Sirius and the way he was treating Harry.

Unfortunately Sirius was not going to listened Harry's wishes so instead decided to try another approach.

"I can't believe you hate Quidditch?"

Harry sighed, "I don't hate Quidditch and I do want to go to the cup finals BUT I don't want to get laid by some old hag EXPERT OR NOT if that is the price you demand of me. Besides, the Weasleys managed to get tickets to the cup and sent me a letter inviting me to go with them."

"Well as your guardian I can refuse you permission to go," Sirius snapped back.

"Well then I guess I won't be going to the cup final."

Of course Harry knew that Sirius would take him to the final no matter what. It was just annoying that after nearly six weeks he still had not gotten Sirius under control. It was also aggravating that Sirius was so immature. No wonder the Black Family had been furious at their wayward heir. Considering his age and especially since his incarceration in Azkaban, Sirius Black had not changed much from the arrogant, selfish, immature, bullying school boy he had once been and it looked like he would continue to act the same way.

Tom had actually been glad that the werewolf was living with them as at least he had matured and tried to convince Sirius what care Harry really needed. It was Lupin who was tasked with teaching Harry all of the things he should have and would have been taught had not Dumbledore interfered.

However, Sirius Black was used to getting his own way and on the next full moon when Remus was locked up for his "furry little problem" Sirius suggested that he and Harry take in a movie. Both Sirius and (mostly) Remus had been teaching him French and Sirius said it would be good to see a film entirely in French without subtitles to see how well he has coming along.

That did make sense and since Tom Riddle was fluent in French as well as many other languages, he would be able to understand everything while pretending to understand only a little. Besides, it was one of Tom's dirty little secrets that he liked Muggle films, television and other entertainment.

Tom's first hint that something was up was when Sirius hailed a taxi and said in French, very quickly (so that Harry couldn't understand) gave the driver an address. It was not for one of the cinemas, so Tom had a feeling they were going to visit Circe Zabini for the "introduction" whether Harry wanted it or not. And he was correct in his assumption as a very smug Sirius all but grabbed him from the taxi and then dragged him through the doors of an impressive-looking mansion.

"As I keep telling you" Sirius said smiling broadly, "You WILL THANK ME for this gift."

Circe greeted them and verified the "instructions" that Harry was to be given, two bags of money changed hands, one for Harry's "initiation" (Sirius had arranged for the "works" to be given) and one for the evening that Sirius had planned for himself.

So off went the Magicals for a night of MAGIC that none of them would ever forget.

The next morning, Remus returned to the hotel suite, worse for the wear as normal, and only Harry was sitting at the table having breakfast. That was not unusual as Sirius slept late or hadn't returned from his "date" but Remus remembered that Sirius was taking Harry to the movies.

"Where's Sirius? Still in bed is he?" Remus asked while sitting down and helping himself to croissants and coffee.

Harry swallowed what he had been eating and reached for his glass or orange juice replying "No, Sirius is in jail…along with several other people."

"WHAT?"

"He's in jail for a number of things, which I am sure he will inform you in all its gory details when he is released."

"I can't wait that long, so spill it" Remus ordered.

Taking a deep breathe Harry said quickly but succinctly "Sirius lied about the movie, took me to that brothel, sent me off with Blaize Zabini's great something and then went off to have fun. When I say I didn't want to lose my innocence until my own choosing, I meant it. Granted for someone that old, she was very beautiful and started off by forcing a goblet at me and ordered me to drink it because it would calm me. I gave it a sniff, knew it was a potion of some kind but not the calming draught or anything similar that I've ever taken, and my gut feeling was that something was wrong."

He took another deep breath and said "I slipped out my wand and stunned her. I then checked the drink and found in it several things I never heard of before. I then went over to the bed and cast a few spells and again, there were charms on it that I didn't recognize. Granted, I've only have three years of magical education, but the old gut told me to get out of there fast."

"I put a seal over the goblet, reinforced the stun with magical ropes and a gag and then climbed out of the window. We were rather close to the French equivalent of Diagon Alley, so I went there and asked for an Auror. I explained the situation and gave him the goblet, he gave it a sniff and before I knew it, he summoned other Aurors and, to use a Muggle term, they raided the place."

By now Remus' jaw had dropped and he just stared in disbelief as Harry continued.

"An Auror took me to their Ministry of Magic, I was given some very good pastry, a pitcher of lemonade and a few things to read. After a while, a Conte Delacour came in, questioned me about what had happened, and I told him everything about not wanting to lose my innocence, Sirius' saying I was, and my hesitation when I smelled the potion in the goblet. I will admit, I might have cried a bit (Tom was very good at showing tears as a child – when it suited him), and the Conte was very understanding."

"Your so-called guardian was found in _flagrante delicto_ with three females, two of them under-aged, doing…things…which you should not ever know about as I certainly didn't want to. After one of the Unspeakables inspected the bedroom, he demanded the immediate arrest of Circe Zabini. The Ministry had heard…certain rumors…but had no real evidence concerning some of the things happening there, but that was explained by the charms, hexes and potions found on the premises. The Ministry owes you a great debt, as one of the charges was the ignoring of the Secrecy Act as several Muggles without any Magical or Squib relatives, knew about the 'specialties of the house' and told others. There was the illegal sale of magical sexual enhancements and similar things as well as other things - such as Veritaserum – being sold to Muggles."

"Wow! That lady broke a lot of laws" a wide-eyed Harry said.

"Pray do not refer to the _creature_ as a lady" the Conte replied. "We are using Veritaserum on all employees of that…house of ill-repute. Your guardian has also been given Veritaserum if only because he refused to give his name and used his wand to curse an Auror in front of the two under-aged Muggles, breaking the Secrecy Act. Since Veritaserum only lasts for a short time and can't be given again for several hours, we will be holding him until further notice."

"Then the Conte asked if there was anyone to take care of me and I told them you could as you were a former Professor at Hogwarts and was tutoring me over the summer. They dropped me off here and I went to bed. The rest is history."

Remus still said nothing and apparently in shock until Harry said "We could always call this a 'prank' I invented, so maybe Sirius would be pacified."

It was then that Remus started laughing uncontrollably and couldn't stop for several minutes.

Unfortunately, three days later after Sirius was released, HE WAS NOT LAUGHING. In fact, he didn't say a thing to either of them other than informing them that they were going home. And they did and were just in time to read about the current scandal _The Daily Prophet_ was reporting. For once they had all the facts and the juicy details correct.

Dumbledore was almost jumping for joy, as it had proved that Sirius Black wasn't a fit guardian and he could get Harry back under his control. But someone his age shouldn't be jumping around and it suddenly came to a halt when Dumbledore petitioned the Ministry for his reinstatement of Harry's guardianship.

The Goblins had been busy and were in the process of filing various legal actions against Dumbledore, the Dursleys and others. Sirius' own cousin, Andromeda Black Tonks, was hired as a legal representative for Harry. Since she had been disowned from the House of Black for marrying her Muggleborn husband, she was not under Sirius' control. She did not have to obey "Lord Black" and would refuse reinstatement in the House of Black if he suggested (or demanded) it.

Therefore, even if Sirius was relieved of his duties as guardian, Andromeda, as a relative, had a claim to the child and stated "It is better that it is me than the Malfoys."

So it was back to square one for Dumbles, Sirius was LIVID and no one went to the Cup Finals.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Tournament

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 6 – The Tournament

The Triwizard Tournament was being resurrected and would be held at Hogwarts. The reason the Tournament had been stopped was due to the deaths and scandals surrounding it. However, for some unknown reason it was being brought back to promote international cooperation via sports.

Yeah, right! To Tom it reeked of a set up and that somehow, despite being underage Harry Potter, would be forced to compete. Well Tom would have none of it.

He had his suspicions that Dumbledore was involved in some way which were confirmed when he managed to find out that originally it was to be held at Beauxbatons until Fudge moved heaven and earth (with Dumbledore's assistance) to have it held at Hogwarts. It reeked of another one of Dumble's tests.

Tom did as much research as possible considering he was still in Sirius' clutches. He contacted the Goblins and paid them an outrageous fee to find out as much as possible concerning the Tournament going back to the start. Tom wanted to know all rules connected with the Tournament especially in modern times and if there had been some amendments made recently.

Naturally there had been "amendments" made such as once a student's name came out of the Goblet of Fire they were forced to compete or lose their magic and their life. There was an age limit which Dumbledore swore that he personally would spell to keep the Tournament honest and _no underage student could possibly enter themselves_. Translating "Dumblespeak" it meant that _no underage student could enter their name_ but someone else could enter it for them and then they would be forced to compete.

Until this recent "amendment" there were several safe-guards concerning the entry in the Tournament. In the past, many times people entered the name of a person they wanted to die, thus rules had been added that if you were underage, didn't enter your name or had someone else to do it for you, were too sickly or weak, etc., all you had to do was to swear on your magic that you didn't. Then even a parent or guardian couldn't make you participate. In fact, there was a committee who gave physical exams and magical tests to see if you were even capable of entering before you put your name in the Goblet of Fire.

"Why?" He knew that Harry Potter's name would be called and he wouldn't be allowed to defend himself either by demanding to be administered Veritaserum or swear on his life and magic that he didn't enter. Therefore the entire school as well as the foreign press would believe he had cheated his way into competing. Can we say "pariah" as that is what Potter would end up being called and treated as such and worse than ever by his usual nemeses and the _Prophet_ – they would go insane.

The school and news media would turn against him and he'd make some international enemies. Also Sirius Black would be over the moon with joy and would demand he participate even if there was a way to get out of it. There was only one thing left to do and Tom began researching how to do it.

Ron Weasley was still trying to get back into Harry's good graces by any and all means possible. In the first two weeks of school there had already been three attempts at spell casting done on him to persuade him to take Ron back as well as seven potions added to his morning pumpkin juice. They didn't work but Ron kept looking at Harry with eager, hopeful eyes especially at meals as Harry drank his juice.

Little did anyone know but Dobby had been monitoring Harry's food and drink and negating the potion effects. He informed Harry that he might have to stop because he noticed he was now being watched by the Head House Elf who reported back to Dumbledore.

Tom thought about it for a second before telling Dobby to just switch the goblet meant for him with say…Crabbe or Goyle's cups. As an afterthought he asked Dobby to switch Hermione's goblet with Malfoy's or Nott's as yesterday Harry noticed that Hermione's pumpkin juice was being spiked with a lust potion directed to Ron. That should be interesting to watch.

And it was!

He was aware that Dumbledore was _always_ watching him. He tried to ignore him and definitely didn't look into his eyes. He wondered how long it would be until the old coot called him into his office for a "chat" or two. But he had other things to worry about now.

He had tried to switch from Divination to Ancient Runes last year but McGonagall had refused him permission. He knew that as long as the request was made no later than the first two weeks of term it was possible to change courses. She had lied to him saying it wasn't possible. He had retaliated with a copy of the school rules pointing out that _it was indeed possible_ but he had then been told that he "didn't have the intelligence or dedication to take Ancient Runes" and he knew then that Dumbles didn't want him to take any serious, helpful courses.

He had done a lot of studying with Remus over the summer usually when Sirius was out "getting to know" one of his conquests better. He then asked Remus if he thought he could take Runes in his fourth year since Remus said he had done so very well. Remus said yes and that he would write a letter to McGonagall on Sirius' behalf and ask that Harry be allowed to change.

Sirius had actually signed it to pacify Harry and Remus had gone so far as to buy the Runes text book. However, as he was being given his course schedule Divination was still on it and when he had asked McGonagall why he was she informed him – in public no less – that courses could not be changed.

That was when he earned his first detention for the year, but it had been worth it to see the expression on McGonagall's face when he announced very loudly so that half the Great Hall could hear when he called her a liar and began to explain why.

He never got to finish as she had yelled "Detention with Mr. Filch" before storming off.

Naturally Hermione lit into him for showing disrespect to a teacher but he ignored her. It would be a bit difficult but he could and would "drop her" if she kept up with her usual behavior. Then the silly bint would be forced to go back to being Ron's only friend and that would "teach" her. Well actually knowing her type it wouldn't as Ron would only use her to get back in Harry's good graces and then dump her as soon as he had succeeded.

Except none of that would be happening as he would never take Ron back and Hermione was expendable. He had Neville as a friend now and had cultivated Angela Johnston and Katie Bell and was making slow but sure strides with some of the Puffs and a Ravenclaw or two. Granger had her uses but if she didn't change….

The only problem he envisioned was Dumbledore pouncing if he dumped Granger as she did keep him informed about Harry's life. Since he was forcing Ron at Harry if Granger was abandoned, then Dumbledore would take steps which would be bad for Harry's wellbeing.

So Tom would have to ease Granger out of his life without too many people noticing. He would probably have to spell her to behave since she wouldn't do it voluntarily.

Harry still had Sirius as a guardian, but his own cousin Andromeda (or "Andy" as she asked to be called), who the Goblins said was an honorable woman, was still representing him and was trying to get full custody of Harry with only limited visitation rights for Sirius.

Sirius had been informed about this, but he just shrugged it off as he had the Ministry on his side due to his illegal incarceration as well as being the current Lord Black. But Andy had some tricks up her sleeve – besides her wand – which would legally nullify Sirius' claims on Harry and the Lordship.

Tom hoped that the "Sirius Problem" would be taken care of before the Tournament began. Since "the incident in Paris" Sirius had been very cool towards Harry and Remus. Since everybody knew about the "incident" Sirius found himself being ignored by the "old duffers" what he called the magicals way past their time without a sense of humor.

Even old reprobates were giving him downcast looks, or as one of the more famous degenerates said to him "You can, especially as a Pure-blood lord, do anything you want no matter how…disgusting…some people might find it. BUT, YOU DON'T GET CAUGHT! The fact that your godson and ward whose voice hasn't changed yet was involved in this scandal…well just try to BEHAVE YOURSELF FOR ONCE…or at least until it all dies down."

But Sirius didn't like being embarrassed and felt that he was not at fault for anything – except trying to make a man out of James' son. Harry, and Remus for siding with the boy, would have to apologize to him. In the meantime, he didn't take them to the Cup Finals as punishment, but that turned out to be a good thing as Death Eaters had disrupted it, causing chaos and fear.

Sirius didn't take Harry to the Hogwarts Express having Remus do it instead. He also had no intention of writing to the kid unless he first sent Sirius an apologetic, groveling letter pleading for mercy. That should teach him!

However, on September 2nd Sirius received a very official owl from Gringotts. He just thought it was his (or Harry's) bank statements, so he ignored it. The next day, he received another one, which he also ignored, as well as one from the Minister of Magic himself. He ignored that one too as no doubt the old fuddy duddy probably wanted advice from Lord Black and/or a "contribution" of some sort. He ignored that one also, as well as the letters he received from both entities for the next three days.

Finally, there was a knock on his door and he called for his new house elf Sunny to answer it. Within a minute, three Aurors and his Cousin Andy came into the room. He was asked why he had been ignoring the letters but he shrugged and replied "I didn't feel like reading them. I have better things to do with my time."

"Well I don't know what they are, but you have been ignoring summons from the Ministry and Gringotts. There is a hearing concerning your guardianship of Harry and…."

"I HAVE THE GUARDIANSHIP OF HARRY AND AS YOUR HEAD OF HOUSE I ORDER YOU TO…."

"You are not my Head of House, as I was disowned and never reinstated and have no desire to accept reinstatement."

"Well I am reinstating you and thus ORDER YOU to…."

"No you are not" she replied calmly. " _These Aurors are here to escort you to the Ministry NOW."_

Naturally, Sirius refused to go anywhere and kicked up a fuss, threatened dire consequences to Andy and the Aurors until he was stunned and taken to the Ministry. At least Andy had the decency to have the elf get Sirius' good robes so that he would not be an embarrassment to the House of Black by arriving in Muggle jeans and a T-shirt of the Weird Sisters.

The details of the hearing will not be listed here, but in the end, Sirius Black lost custody of his godson, but did have limited visitation rights – at Harry's convenience. He also lost access to a lot of money and prestige. He was in shock as it just couldn't be happening to him, but it was and there was no appeal.

Upon reaching his new apartment, he had the elf pack some clothes and such, ordered her to pack up all of his possessions and inform the landlord he was canceling his lease. He then left for a vacation – far, far away from Britain…and his so-called loved ones.

Tom was happy as the proverbial clam (although he never could figure out how clams were known for being happy). He had been emancipated. He was rid of Sirius, had access to money, houses, a large quantity of rare books and precious artifacts and with the exception of Andy checking up on him now and then, he was basically on his own, but owning a bunch of house elves from the Black and Potter estates.

Just so Dumbles wouldn't find out, at least for the moment, his new status wasn't officially announced. He had Andy find him a "personal assistant" (who would also be keeping an eye on him) as a lot of things had to be done concerning the renovations of his new houses and in his free time, he was plotting and planning.

He had hired Dobby as an elf to be his personal valet when he was "at home" but he also had Snarky, one of his new elves (from the House of Black), disillusion himself and lurk around the Goblet late at night to watch for anything interesting, such as someone not a student, putting a name in the Goblet. If the person did such a thing (and Mad Eye Moody had), then Snarky was to change the name on the entry form before it was placed in the Goblet. Snarky reported what had happened and asked if he should still keep watch. Harry said "Yes, just until the day the names are picked."

Now all Tom had to do was sit back and wait for the fun to begin.

Finally, Halloween arrived and after the sickening sweet feast, Dumbles called for silence and announced that the Goblet would be picking the names.

Victor Krum was to represent Darmstadt, Fleur Delacour would represent Beauxbatons and much to the joy of Hufflepuff, their own Cedric Diggory would be representing Hogwarts. After the thunderous applause was finished and the three champions had gone to the meeting room, Dumbledore still lingered, giving an unnecessary speech. It seemed to Tom that Dumbles was waiting for something and then IT HAPPENED.

Another name was spit out by the Goblet and a "surprised" Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and a look of shock appeared on his face. "There is a…fourth champion. Ron Weasley, please come up to the dais and follow me to the meeting room.

It seemed like everybody in the great hall was stunned – and silenced. Even the fourth champion couldn't believe it until Hermione slapped his arm and hissed out "What did you do?"

He turned to the girl and with a smirk on his face replied "I'm a champion. A real champion and I am going to win!"

With that said he quickly left the table and followed Dumbledore to the meeting room. Once the door was closed, voices of disbelief and outrage filled the hall. It took all of Tom's control not to smile wickedly. The game was on, but not the one Dumbles and "Moody" wanted.


	7. Chapter 7 - Ron the Champion

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

I want to thank everybody who sent me the kind reviews. It was very uplifting and I will try to update this story as often as possible as well as others.

Chapter 7 – Ron the Champion

Moody a/k/a Barty Crouch, Jr., was very, very worried and he had a right to be. He had personally written Potter's name, and in a fair imitation of the boy's handwriting, but somehow Ron Weasley's name had come out instead. Since the extra champion would be announced in the Prophet and the Dark Lord had Pettigrew get him a copy of that news rag every morning, Barty had to explain to the Dark Lord, exactly what happened. Of course, he was delayed by all of the useless meetings Dumbledore held concerning the fourth champion.

Dumbledore was angry and not because another student's name had come out of the Goblet but because it hadn't been Harry Potter's name but Weasley's. Now the Headmaster was not wearing the concerned, grandfatherly look but it was evident to Moody/Barty that the old coot was trying to control his anger and not let his mask slip.

Barty was doing the same thing, especially when Dumbles kept glancing over to Moody with a look of hidden anger, almost as if he was accusing the old Auror of failing to get the thing done correctly. Could it be that Dumbles suspected that Moody was being impersonated? Actually, he really should as Dumbles and Moody had been friends and allies for a very long time. Barty had been relieved when Dumbles seemed to have no inkling that Mad Eye wasn't really Moody and even felt rather proud of getting away with it.

However, now that he thought about it, maybe Dumbles did know and approved of entering the boy's name in the Tournament. Both the Dark Lord and Pettigrew had briefed him what they knew about the boy's "adventures" for the past three years as well as how he had been dumped with his magic-hating relatives and did not have a good life. In fact, impossible as it seemed, the boy was treated worse than a house elf, wore only his overweight cousin's raggedy clothing and was constantly starved, mistreated and indoctrinated that he was worthless, no one would ever love him and he should have died with his equally useless parents. He hadn't known that he was a wizard until Hagrid told him and then took him to Diagon Alley instead of a qualified teacher.

Finally, at 3:15 a.m. the meetings were over, orders had been given out and Barty was finally able to leave and report to the Dark Lord. Mercifully, his Lord was awake and actually waiting for him. Apparently, he had Pettigrew acquire a wizarding wireless set and the "amazing news" had already been broadcasted.

"Explain!" was the only thing his Lord said to him.

After swearing on his life and magic that he had put Potter's name in the Goblet, he begged the Dark Lord to go into his mind and view his memories and his thoughts since the wrong name had come out. The Dark Lord did so and miraculously after the viewing didn't cruciated him – not even a little bit. Instead he was in deep thought for several minutes before informing Barty "Did you know that you have been obliviated recently – twice."

"No…no, my Lord. Was it Dumbledore?"

"I believe so. I haven't seen his magical signature in years but it had to be him. Ergo, he must have suspected you, caught you off guard, found out your plans and then programmed you to do certain things and obliviated you. He must be feeling rather smug, as usual."

"You said he was surprised and then angry when Weasley's name came out. He was expecting Potter to be the fourth champion. He knew that you would 'assist' the boy so that he wouldn't be seriously injured or killed and thus, he could have the public, all three schools and most importantly, the press crucify him. No doubt Rita Skeeter will be the reporter assigned to cover the Tournament and we all know what she is like."

"However, since he probably knows – and approves – of my plan to use Potter to resurrect me there has to be a reason that he wants me to resurrect."

"But shouldn't he do everything in his power to prevent it?" Barty asked.

Voldie smiled, or at least as one could smile with his now distorted face, before replying "It is for the 'great game' that Dumbdamnit plays. He considers himself the grand chess master but doesn't play fairly. I actually blame him for what I have…become. I have a theory that since he defeated Grindelwald and acquired the power and fame that came with it, he craved more. Thus, he needed another Dark Lord to defeat, even if he had to create one."

Both Barty and Peter were silent. Neither had ever seen their Lord so…different.

Of course, he noticed their confusion but knew they wouldn't dare ask any questions.

"I want you to return to the school and see how Dumbledore is handling the situation. Despite the recent changes he made to the rules, don't be surprised if he gets Weasley out of the Tournament and somehow replaces him with Potter – or at least tries to. From what I remember Wormtail told me, the Weasley matriarch is rather…what's the word you used?"

"Bitchy, overbearing, bigoted, opinionated, loud mouth, bossy, irritating, controlling…."

"That's quite enough Wormtail" Voldemort replied. Turning to Barty he said "Go back to Hogwarts and see if Dumbles is trying to get Weasley out and Potter in. Keep me advised of anything important."

Ronald Bilius Weasley was being more obnoxious than usual. Tom was now wishing he had put Draco or Neville's name in the Goblet especially after Ron started rubbing Harry's nose in it about Ron's success.

Although Ron admitted he hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire he, in his wisdom, quickly figured out why his name had been chosen despite Cedric's name being picked as the Hogwarts champion.

"Apparently, the Goblet recognized my talent, power and good old awesomeness and decided that I just had to be in the competition. I plan on winning the Tournament and will bring glory to Hogwarts but, naturally, most of the glory will go to me."

"Ronniekins" George had asked him, "After you die in the Tournament, can Fred and I have Uncle Fabian's chess set?"

"I'M NOT GOING TO DIE, I'M GOING TO WIN THE BLOODY THING."

"Of course, being only a fourth year, I will have to do some research and study up on the Tournament. I'll have Hermione do the research while I'll practice spells and stuff because being a champion, I'm exempt from all classes and the final exams."

"And what makes you think I'll help you win?" an angry Hermione asked. She had been ignoring Ron ever since the "Crookshanks incident" and since Harry was also avoiding him, she was protected from Ron's abuse.

"Because you love to do research and you can leech off a bit – just a little bit – of my fame and glory" he said smugly. "But not the money as all that lovely G1,000 will be mine - all mine."

The entire room went silent when Hermione Granger, she of the uptight morality, let out a few choice cuss words, before turning and leaving the room to go to her room where Ron couldn't follow.

"Stupid bitch" Ron muttered.

"Don't worry Ron, I'll make sure she'll come round" Ginny said. "Otherwise she will be pranked to death." She then went up the stairs to the girls' rooms.

Although Harry was sitting in the common room, he was talking to Neville about certain plants they were learning about in Herbology. Tom already knew about the plants but it was Neville's forte and he was cozying up to the boy as due to his position in society, he would someday be very important due to his name, money and seat in the Wizengamot.

Tom was extremely angry with Bellatrix for disobeying his orders and going after the Longbottoms. He had a theory as to why she had, dragging three of his most faithful minions along with her succeeding only in getting them all a one-way ticket to Azkaban – oh, and leaving the Longbottoms in a state of living death. He would investigate the matter more when he had the time.

Had Dumbledore not meddled, Harry would have been placed with the Longbottoms as Alice Longbottom was his godmother. He and Neville would have grown up together and Harry would have had a much better life. Instead, Harry went to the hell of the Dursleys and Neville was under the care of his formidable Grandmother Augusta.

Instead of cherishing her only grandchild, he was raised to have very low self-esteem, constantly compared, unfavorably, to his father who Augusta had raised to sainthood on par in goodness, bravery, purity of heart and magical power as King Arthur, St. George and Merlin. Frank Longbottom had been a brave, good man but was just slightly above-average in power. Also, she made the boy use his sainted father's wand instead of getting Neville one that suited him. No wonder the kid was doing badly in the classes which a wand was used.

Not for the first time had Tom wondered if Dumbledore had also had a hand in harming Neville's life. He was the other child mentioned in the prophecy and although he was not starved or forced to wear cast-off rags or work like a house elf, the abuse of being negatively compared to his father, mental and emotional abuse was just as bad. Add the lack of a real wand and the constant belittling of the boy at Hogwarts and you had one messed-up, down-trodden child.

With "Harry's" help, Neville was getting some confidence little by little and it was starting to show, to those who really noticed which was not many. Harry had promised to sneak Neville to Diagon Alley during the Christmas break to get him his own wand as a Christmas present. "I wager that Mr. Ollivander can spell your new wand to match your father's so your gran won't know you are using a new one."

Since Ginny had left to "talk some sense into Hermione" few people were paying attention to Ron except for a few first years. He couldn't have that as he needed more attention than usual since HE WAS THE CHAMPION.

Although he had given Rita Skeeter an exclusive interview, he hadn't heard from his parents, which was very strange indeed. At least his mother should have contacted him as he had accomplished something that even Bill or Charlie hadn't. He didn't know it, but his mother had immediately flooed to Dumbledore's office when she read about her baby boy being chosen.

"GET HIM OUT OF IT" she had screamed at Dumbledore.

"I can't, otherwise he will lose his magic and HIS LIFE."

A very vicious verbal "disagreement" had resulted until Dumbledore had to stun the woman and then turned to Arthur, who had followed his wife through the floo. Albus explained the situation in great detail to Arthur and tasked him with "calming down Molly" at least until Albus finished trying everything to get Ron out of the contest. It seemed that everyone except Ron knew there was no way he would survive the first task.

However, Ron shrugged off not hearing from his parents (who wouldn't give an interview to Skeeter or anybody else) thinking that they were probably planning some great surprise to celebrate his selection.

Ron looked around the common room to see who else he could impress and then he spotted Potter and Longbottom. Both boys had been ignoring Ron since the champion selection, no doubt because they were jealous. But now Ron was about to rub Potter's nose in Ron's glory.

"Oi, Potter" Ron yelled strutting over to Harry and Neville "I'll need your broom to practice on for the training I will be doing. Hand it over."

Harry turned to Ron and calmly said, "Sirius found out there would be no Quidditch this year so, in a snit, he confiscated it to get back at me for…well you know, it was in the papers."

"Oh yeah," Ron sneered "What are you – gay or something. No, don't answer that as…actions speak louder than words. Always knew you were…different." Ron then started laughing and through nods of his head and winks urged others to follow his lead. Few did.

"Well Sirius confiscated it and until he calms down, I'm broomless."

"Liar! There is no way Sirius would know about the Tournament and no way that he wouldn't let you play Quidditch for Gryffindor."

"Actually" Neville said "Lots of people knew about the Tournament and the cancellation of Quidditch and…."

"Nobody asked you – Squib" Ron spat out. "Give me your broom now or else I'll know for sure and announce to the world that you are so jealous that I was a specially chosen champion that you will try to damage my training and…."

He was interrupted by Hermione running down the stairs, carrying a bucket and throwing up slugs. She headed for the door followed by a smirking Ginny who shouted out to Ron "I'm in the process of 'convincing her' to help you otherwise, she'll be puking slugs the entire year."

"You can get her later as I want you to curse Potty and Squib Boy because they are so jealous that they are trying to delay my training and…." But Ron was stunned, as was Ginny, by Harry.

The Twins ambled over to the scene only to be informed by Harry "You two – I told you about my lack of a broom on the 1st. Kindly inform your sister and…Dumbo Boy…that if they curse or hex me, Neville, Hermione or anybody else or tell you to 'prank' us, that I will call in the life debt Ginny owes me, and in the worse possible way. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

He had, and the Twins nodded as Harry and Neville packed up their books and headed towards the Infirmary to check on Hermione.

"I should have picked Malfoy instead of Dumbo Boy" Tom said to himself once again. "At least, I wouldn't have to share a dorm room with him.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Tournament

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 8 – The Tournament

To say that being the 4th champion had gone to Ron's head would be an understatement. Ginny was on "his side" and the Twins said they would help him study but Ron had to cooperate and not go around the school like he was Merlin, Arthur and St. George incarnate.

"This is very, very serious" Percy had told them all. "I have been trying to get you out of the Tournament but the rules are very clear that…."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? ARE YOU THAT JEALOUS THAT YOU WANT ME TO LOSE ETERNAL GLORY, FAME AND G1,000?" Ron shouted at his brother.

"No you idiot" Fred said "He knows that you are incapable of surviving and this is a tournament during which people have been killed – which is supposedly why it was discontinued."

"But I am the Chosen One of the Goblet of Fire" a highly insulted Ron snapped back.

"Oh come off it" George added "You made that up and although the Ministry and Dumbles haven't denied it, they haven't said it was true."

"Well what else could it be?" Ron stated.

No one could answer that until a voice which had been eavesdropping said "I bet it was meant for Harry Potter" Lee Jordan said.

"No one asked you" Ron snarled.

"Well it does make more sense" Fred opined. "Someone or thing has been trying to kill Harry every year so why should it be different this year."

A very heated argument broke out when the other four Weasleys and Lee Jordan told Ron that it was more than feasible that such a thing could occur.

"Then why did my name come out?" a very pompous Ron stated haughtily.

"I guess it is just one of those 'mysteries' that will never be solved" George added.

Ron ended the argument by leaving the Twins' room and then the tower. He would find some of his fans and gift them with his presence. For some unforeseen reason, Ron couldn't find any but it did not deter him as the dinner hour was soon starting so Ron went to the Great Hall, was the first one there, sat down and immediately food was served. At least the elves recognized his greatness!

As more people came to dinner, Ron "dazzled" them with his awesomeness and predicted his success. He really wanted Potter and the Mudblood to appear so that he could once again rub it in Potter's nose that Ron was chosen and not Harry. However, Hermione was still in the Infirmary with Harry and Neville keeping her company. In fact, Harry had made arrangements with the elves for the three of them to eat in the kitchen or be served their meals in an empty classroom as even word had reached the elves about Ron's behavior.

Although Tom knew where the kitchen was located, Harry didn't. But Neville did as he was friends with the "right people" such as the lonely, eccentric Ravenclaw Luna Lovegood. They had been friends since her first year when Neville came across her on her way to the Infirmary after being "taught a lesson by her betters" and Neville recognized a kindred soul.

When they entered the kitchen, they were enthusiastically greeted by the elves who showed them to "their table" where Luna was already sitting.

"Bad day in Ravenclaw?" Neville asked.

"Isn't it always" Harry stated. Neville had told Harry and Hermione about the abuse the girl suffered and Harry, and to a lesser extent, Hermione, tried to befriend her. Tom thought she was amusing and Hermione just felt sorry for the girl.

"Is Ronald…being difficult…again?" the girl asked.

"Yep" said the three others in unison.

"Well he will probably stop bragging once he hears what the first task is" Luna said.

"You know what the first task is?" a doubting Hermione asked.

"Yes, I do. My father has friends on the Continent and they told him that the first task is to retrieve a golden egg from a nesting mother DRAGON!"

The other three were shocked until Harry stated "Well it looks as if Ron will be shutting up once he hears that. If not, after facing a nesting mother dragon he just might shut up forever."

Contrary to what Harry stated about Ron shutting up, Ron was doing quite the opposite. Percy had contacted both Bill and Charlie about helping their youngest brother. Bill was a curse-breaker and Charlie was also talented as well as a dragon handler. Charlie was the first to respond. He would have sent a howler but then everybody would know what was supposed to be a secret.

Instead, he sent a howler to his mother, for allowing the idiot to participate in the contest, and an express floo letter to Bill informing him that their "Bragging fool of a brother was about to face a nesting mother dragon and try to steal one of her eggs – in front of hundreds of people making lots of noise and further irritating the dragon."

"I'll be arriving with the dragons just a few days before the first task" he told Bill. "However, something is VERY WRONG as originally we were supposed to bring three dragons, but then _ **before**_ _the drawing_ we were informed to bring four, the fourth being a backup. Early this week we were told to _**bring two backup dragons**_ for 'safety sake' and no other reason was given. SOMETHING BAD IS DEFINITELY GOING TO HAPPEN and Ron is in the middle of it. Personally, I don't want Mum expressing her grief for losing a son – for more reasons than one. Please take an immediate leave of absence and go home, find out what is really going on and STOP IT!"

Bill asked for and received a leave of absence (unpaid of course) the day he received a letter. He bought an international portkey from the Goblins (at great expense) and got to the Burrow around suppertime. Both his parents were surprised and happy to see him and he had to interrupt his mother's rant of welcome, Ron's 'glory' and other odds and ends occurring without stopping for a breath or to let Bill (or Arthur) get a word in. In desperation Bill cast a Sonorous on himself to out shout and get his mother's attention. However, before he could ask his questions, his mother chided him for his rudeness and just continued on.

She only shut up when he silenced her, and froze her in place, and then asked his father the questions. Arthur explained everything – which he knew of – especially what Dumbledore had told them.

"Ron MUST participate or lose not only his magic but also his life. Dumbledore knows the rules inside out and backwards and Ron has no choice but to compete. Personally, I don't believe that the _**Goblet of Fire personally chose him**_ as Ron says, but Dumbledore thinks someone purposely entered his name – instead of Harry Potter's name."

"What do you mean, instead of Harry Potter?"

Arthur sighed, as he didn't believe anything Dumbledore said concerning the Tournament, but he HAD TO ACCEPT IT as it was Dumbledore saying it. "Mad Eye Moody, and even Snape, thinks someone meant to put Harry Potter's name in the Goblet but 'accidentally' put Ron's name in. Whether or not it is true, Ron still must compete or face the consequences."

Between his idiot brother, his mother and her mighty mouth and Dumbledore actually saying it was probably meant for Harry Potter, Bill was developing a severe headache. His frozen mother was giving him nasty looks with her eyes and since dinner was on the table, he said to Arthur "Let's eat and talk and worry about Mum's temper later.

Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore was alone but quietly celebrating his "brilliance" and problem-solving abilities. He had thought of a way to get Harry in the Tournament and so that nothing could go wrong, it would only be revealed at breakfast on the day of the first task.


	9. Chapter 9 - Schemes & Plans for the Firs

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 9 – Schemes and Plans for the First Task

Although Bill had tried his best, he could not get Ron out of the Tournament. The Goblins had been helpful – as far as a Goblin could be – showing him the before and after rules. "The Ministry and Dumbledore have "approved" these new rules – but don't tell anybody as it is a big secret" he was told.

"There is a nasty - but unproved - rumor circulating in certain circles" Sharpfang, the Goblin assigned to assist Bill told him "That a fourth champion was going to be chosen and it was going to be Harry Potter. How your brother's name came out remains a mystery. But only the Minister of Magic, the Tournament Committee and most especially Dumbledore could allow your brother out of the Tournament."

"Then why haven't they done so?" Bill asked.

"Because they don't want to" was the reply. "Thus, your brother MUST compete or lose not only his magic but his life. No doubt Dumbledore has given your parents – what do the Muggles say – 'a song and dance'* and as you should know, NO ONE goes against Dumbledore and wins."

Charlie arrived and immediately contacted Percy and arranged for a "family conference" consisting of the Twins, Bill, Percy, Ron and Ginny ONLY. It was arranged for after curfew in a spot in the Forbidden Forest. When all had gathered, Charlie showed them the first task.

Ron and Ginny fainted. Ron was revived and was promptly sick to his stomach. After forcing a calming potion down his throat, Charlie led them to a safe spot where they would not be eavesdropped on. For safety, Bill cast disillusion, silencing and. just to be safer, notice-me-not charms on the group.

Bill told them what he had found out – except for the part where Dumbledore and others _could but would NOT let Ron out of the Tournament_ – and Charlie would tell Ron how to "fight the dragon" and survive.

"What you have to do is to keep a safe distance from the dragon, cast a few spells and then, you sneakily cast a charm which Bill will instruct you in. You have to seem like you are fighting the dragon, but with this spell, it will backfire on you and knock you out. Thus, you will have participated, be knocked out and survive. You won't get any points BUT YOU WILL SURVIVE!"

"Don't you know any spells or charms that I could cast and actually get the egg?" Ron demanded. "I don't want to look like a total dork and-"

"No I don't know any special spells or charms – that aren't very, very dark or that you are capable of learning, especially at your age" Bill said. "You have a choice, carry out the plan and survive or keep away from the dragon for one hour before being able to stop."

"Good luck with the latter as a dragon just might zap you out if you try to outlast it" Charlie opined.

Thus, Bill would be tutoring Ron in the place they were meeting at, showing and making him practice the spells he would need and hoping the idiot could learn them well enough to save his hide.

The morning of the first task came all too soon. Ron had been living on calming drafts for the last three days so that he wouldn't show his very great fear. He had learned enough to survive if he didn't panic and not get too close to the dragon. His brothers had done all they could and now it was up to Ron to pass or fail.

The breakfast meal on that day was mandatory. After all were assembled but before the food was served, Dumbledore gave a speech concerning the Tournament's history, the four champions and their talents, which brought laughter from mostly Slytherins and half of the other Houses, when Dumbles listed Ron's attributes. But the speech was just stalling for time until Dumbledore's brilliant plan would start.

About half way through his pontification, the Goblet of Fire blazed and its flame shot up at least 3-4 meters and the Great Hall started rumbling, scaring the pants (or skirts) off of several students and staff. Then a piece of parchment flew out of the Goblet and made its way over to Dumbledore's hand.

He read the parchment, then put on his "very shocked face" and made the announcement.

"Apparently, the Goblet made a mistake and instead of Ronald Weasley's name coming out it should have been Harry Potter. Therefore…."

Before he could continue, Ron popped out of his seat, turned to Harry and shouted out "I knew it, I just knew it. You couldn't stand me being chosen as the fourth champion and somehow arranged for it to change so you could reap all the fame, glory and the money – all of which are rightfully mine."

All Weasleys present were completely stunned that their fool of a brother – who had been crying in his sleep for a week – would be relied that he wouldn't have to risk his life. But noooooo, he was starting a fight with Potter.

However, Harry was having none of it and fought back, although Tom knew it was useless and that Dumbledore had arranged it all. He was fast losing his shocked face and trying not to smirk and the old blues were twinkling like a tornado.

"I DIDN'T DO IT" Harry shouted out. "How dare you even say such a thing when you actually wet your bed the other night and have been crying in your sleep for several nights…."

Before he could say more, Ron jumped him and hit Harry as hard as he could in the jaw, causing Harry to lose his balance and struggle to stay on his feet only to have Ron starting to pummel him, knocked him to the floor and then started kicking him all the while screaming out threats, obscenities and, after he thought had done enough damage kicking him in the stomach, savagely started on his head.

Strangely no one but Neville and Hermione tried to pull Ron off of the now bleeding Harry. Hermione, kicked Ron in the family jewels allowing Neville to get a few hits in before actually knocking Ron out cold.

"Two against one isn't fair" Ginny yelled before she cast her infamous bat bogey hex on Neville and would have done the same to Hermione, but the bushy haired witch was too fast and cast the same hex on Ginny. Then the Twins got in the fray because their baby sister had been attacked. Hermione had removed the hex from Neville just in time for the two of them to defend themselves from the Twins and curses and hexes flew. Thankfully Ron was still out and the Twins hadn't stopped Hermione's hex so Ginny had bats coming out of her nose.

It was Snape who finally came over to stop the fight by stunning the five conscious culprits, then levitating Harry onto a stretcher he had conjured. Madame Pomfrey arrived, pronounced Ron no worse for the wear but Harry was bleeding profusely and was taken to the Infirmary for treatment.

After Poppy had time to examine him, she told an anxious Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape (yes Snape was anxious but would never admit or show it) that "Mr. Potter will survive but there is no way he can compete in the Tournament today. He will be in here for at least 3-4 days and then will still be very weak."

"Then we must change the day of the first task" Dumbledore commanded.

"But the laws of the Tournament MUST be adhered to and the first task is today with NO exceptions" said Igor Karkaroff, who was desperately trying to hide his smile. If the Boy-Who-Lived lost his magic and died it would be poetic justice for killing the Dark Lord - at least in Igor's opinion, as he considered the Dark Lord was wronged by the evil Baby Potter.

"But Harry has been compromised" Dumbledore shouted.

"Unfortunately, Headmaster Karkaroff is correct" stated Lugo Bagman, who along with Headmistress Maxime, Cornelius Fudge and several other dignitaries had followed Igor in.

Dumbledore started arguing with the others but as Lugo just happened to have the (new) rules, there was no way the date of the Tournament could be changed.

Dumbledore had a very momentous decision to make. The "real rules" made allowances for such things as during the centuries champions had been attacked and injured enough that they would not be able to compete and therefore lose their magic – but not their life. Since Dumbledore had "secretly" changed the rules to fit his needs to make Harry compete, unless he revealed the fact that he had forged the rules, Harry just might lose all.

But then again, since Albus himself had placed the parchment in the Goblet, it probably wouldn't be legal and Harry would be safe. He would risk it as he could not allow his reputation to be sullied no matter what the consequences to others.

And what about Ron Weasley? The boy would still have to compete and since he had damaged Harry putting him in the condition he was in, what would happen to him. According to the real rules, the person who did the injuring would have to substitute for the champion they injured.

Meanwhile, having only bruises from _his unwarranted and cowardly beating by Potter's sycophants_ , Ron had quickly recovered and released after being treated by the Beauxbaton's medi-witch in a side room off the Great Hall to inform his fans what was really going on. The "true story" – according to Ron Weasley – was spouted out with scorn and fury. It got the interest of a certain beetle who had another exclusive tidbit to add to the article she would be writing about the outcome of the first task.

"He just had to steal my glory" Ron snapped out. "He couldn't stand to not be the center of attention – as usual. He took my place in the Tournament due only to jealousy and to crush my dreams of fame, glory and winning the G1,000."

"Well then Mr. Weasley, despite what you think" a smiling, eye-twinkling Albus Dumbledore said "You are still listed as a champion and since you have been cleared from the…very minor injuries…you received from Mr. Longbottom and Miss Granger when they pulled you off Mr. Potter, you better get ready for the first task."

Ron nearly fainted when he heard the "good news" that he was still a champion. He thought that when Potter's name came out from the Goblet and _the Goblet said that his name was a mistake and that it was Harry Potter who was really the fourth champion_ , Ron had to control himself not to jump for joy as now he wouldn't have to face a dragon and could not be called a coward or suffer the harsh consequences if he didn't compete. He would never admit it to anyone but he was so happy that only one thing could outdo his good luck – the destruction of Harry Potter.

Thinking fast, Ron publically insulted and yelled at Harry hoping Harry would respond (verbally) and give Ron the opportunity to attack him. He had been wearing some steel toed boots which he had borrowed from Lee Jordan for "protection from the dragon" (not that the boots would do him any good but they were awesome so he wanted to wear them) and he used them to his advantage to pummel Potter in the ribs and give him head wounds. Luckily for him, people had been so shocked that he had attacked Potter that they delayed in stopping the attack.

It was so easy to taunt that fool and Ron knew Potter wouldn't fight back because he was such a wimp. When he had actually tried to, Ron increased his attack and soon Potter was on the ground and helpless at Ron's assault. Ron had hoped that he damaged Potter enough (and he had) so that he would not be capable of participating in the Tournament.

His grand plan had worked. Potter was incapacitated and would be for several days and the first task could not be postponed. Therefore, not only would Potter lose his magic, he would also lose his life. Ron could not be held accountable for the attack as he was defending himself against the insults and treachery of Potter and if questioned he would say he just "lost it" and who could blame him. Despite the lack of wealth and position in society, Ron was still a Pure-blood whereas Potter was a Half-blood and son of a Mudblood whore _who everyone knew_ (according to his mother) had used Amortenstia on James Potter so that he would marry the treacherous bitch.

Ron now had his revenge for all of the perceived insults and lack of respect he had received from Potter and the others who were his…fans. Now all he had to do was survive the dragon and win the Tournament so that he would finally outdo his brothers and have the fame, money and glory that was his due.

NOTE: Who wants Ron to die in the next chapter? Please vote yea or nay. Thank you.

*A long and often familiar statement or explanation that is usually not true or pertinent.


	10. Chapter 10 - The First Task

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

NOTE: The voting is in and I will try to do two out of three suggestions to make most people happy. Thanks for your input. Also, some might find this chapter…disturbing…due to certain injuries described and this is not for Ron lovers.

Chapter 10 – The First Task

Since their son Ron was a Champion, Albus had graciously allowed Arthur and Molly attend the first task and sit in the special box reserved for the families. It was in the front near the various dignitaries from several countries. Molly noticed that Lucius Malfoy and a few other Death Eaters had a place in the box and thus were closer to the Minister, the others and even dear Albus.

He had assured the parents that he had every confidence that Ron would not be killed or even hurt in the Tournament, if only because he knew his plans for Harry. But that DAMNABLE boy had endangered Harry and _Albus didn't know at this point_ , if Potter would lose his life and magic. He hoped the Goblet allowed Ron to substitute for Harry or at least until Harry was well enough to participate.

The Diggorys were also in the box as parents of the _real Hogwarts Champion_ and since they had so much in common, such as being parents of the two Hogwarts Champions as well as neighbors and Amos and Arthur both worked at the Ministry (although Amos had a much better position – and was making more money than Arthur). Since the only other people were the families of the French Champion and the "dark Champion of a dark school" and a few of their relatives, since the introductions were made, Molly totally conversed with the Diggorys.

Molly's voice was naturally loud but it rose higher when she made certain remarks such as "I think it is outrageous that we, the parents of Champions, sit here while known Death Eaters and foreigners have the real places of honor."

Mrs. Diggory was greatly embarrassed by Molly's outburst and sincerely hoped no one thought she was in agreement with any of the views expressed or would be expressed by Molly Weasley. She said nothing and tried to blend in with the seating.

Finally, the first task was about to be announced – after Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge gave a rather lengthy and boring speech. Due to Charlie and Bill, Molly and Arthur KNEW about the dragons, but Bill and Charlie assured their mother (and father) that _they had trained Ron to survive_ but not to tell anyone about that as "it was a big secret and they, and Ron, could get in trouble for knowing beforehand about the dragons.

Although the three real Champions also knew about the dragons (Harry had sent an anonymous note to Cedric), the other three sets of parents did not. Despite it being a SECRET, Molly casually commented – loudly – that "My son Bill is a highly valued and extremely talented curse breaker and warder and Charlie is a dragon handler of great renown and respect. They assured me that they have personally been training Ronald to survive and defeat the dragon he is assigned."

"Dragon. Did you say dragon?" a very worried Mrs. Diggory asked, as well as the Comte and Comtesse Delacour. The Krums were shocked but silent and controlled themselves as a Pure-blood must, but they exchanged glances and their eyes conveyed their worry.

Despite Arthur frantically nudging her, Molly continued with her pontificating about the talents of all of her sons (except the Twins) until Percy came over and told her that "Dumbledore said shut up – NOW! It is supposed to be a secret, as you know very well, but you are making a scene." Actually, Dumbledore hadn't told Percy any such thing but he used the name anyway since Molly usually obeyed the Greatest Wizard since Merlin.

Molly was about to yell at her son about his rudeness to his own mother, but Arthur cast a silencing charm on her and a modified stunning charm, which kept her upright but not capable of moving. It wasn't the first time in their marriage that he had to do this and, unfortunately, knew it would not be the last.

Fudge finished his speech and gave the floor over to Dumbledore, who gave the same type of speech but with much more finesse than Cornelius before asking the Heads of the other schools, Ministers and ambassadors if they had anything they wanted to say. Mercifully, the only one who did was the French Minister of Magic you said simply "Let us start the Tournament before we all grow very much older." His speech received a prolong ovation.

Now it was time for Ludo Bagman to do his part. Thankfully he only explained what the first task consisted of stating that the Champions had already drawn their dragon. Cedric Diggory goes first against a Swedish Short-Snout, then Fleur Delacour faces a Welsh Green, Victor Krum confronts a Chinese Fireball and lastly, Ronald Weasley tackles the most vicious of dragons, the Hungarian Horntail."

Most people applauded after each name and dragon were revealed (or in Ron's case, booed and catcalled) while several others, such as Mrs. Diggory, who fainted dead away, and the Comtesse, who stayed conscious due to the help of her own mother. Who knew what Molly would have done if she hadn't been spell with the "Arthur special" as it was known in the family.

Cedric entered the arena to thunderous applause. His mother was still unconscious and Amos was not going to revive her until it was over. It was bad enough he had to watch while keeping a smile on his face.*

Cedric put up a good fight and after nearly 30 minutes, he finally got the egg. However, he received many bruises (ducking will do that) and had just missed by fractions of his left side being set afire, but his clothing on that side was burnt away and he received second-degree burns. Despite the pain, he retrieved the egg and limped off to the Champions' tent for treatment.

The other Champions were not allowed to watch any of the performances, so they wouldn't attempt to use any magic that worked or some such nonsense, but mostly it was so they wouldn't…well run away, faint, etc.

Then Fleur went out to meet her Welsh Green. Veelas were creatures of fire and she happened to like dragons and knew many useful things about them. She had decided to put her dragon in an enchanted sleep, but only succeeded in making it woozy. Dragons have a tough hide and it took her several times and the using of another spell for the dragon to allow her to get close enough to get her egg. It helped that she had conjured up a smoky mist which gave her another advantage. However, just as she was almost safe, a rather loud noise came from _**somewhere**_ and it woke the dragon. The mist had faded and Fleur had to run for it.

Now it is Murphy's Law that in such a circumstance, a damsel trips, sprains an ankle or something like that. Fleur did trip and sprained her ankle but managed to roll away and avoid the Welsh Green's fiery breath. She was badly bruised, had a very sprained ankle, first-degree burns, but much to the disappointment of the males in the crowd, her clothing remained intact.

In an act of chivalry (or more likely to cop a feel**) Ludo Bagman assisted her to the tent as she had completed the task and could now receive help. Fleur's family could now let out the breath they had been holding and started thanking all the deities they knew for their daughter's success.

Next it was Victor's turn against the Chinese Fireball. When he was in a safe distance to begin casting, he hit the creature with a Conjunctive Curse, but the mother moved at the last minute and let out a blast of fiery rage. Victor managed to survive and cast the curse again and again, until the dragon began swaying and fell to the ground. Fortunately for Victor, she was facing away from him but her tail landed on her eggs and smashed some of them. He got the egg and made it to the tent with only a few bruises.

All this time Ron was watching the Champions return to the tent and hearing the noises of the dragons and the crowd. Since Krum wasn't too damaged, Ron had a good chance (or so he thought) to do as Bill and Charlie had taught him BUT go for the egg. He wanted to survive but if he didn't retrieve the egg, he would lose face and his adoring fans.

Ron's name was announced and he boldly went out to meet his destiny. It wasn't until Bagman placed him on his marker and then hurried away that Ron looked up and noticed just how big and vicious-looking the dragon was. He froze – and stayed that way for how long he didn't know.

However, soon the crowd was making their displeasure known, so Ron gathered his Gryffindor courage and began to cast the spells he was taught. He successfully veered and dodged for a bit but then decided to go for the egg. He decided to cast a very strong Reducto on the Fireball. However, he forgot that dragon hide is highly valued for its almost impregnable skin. He frantically cast the spell as fast as he could as he was in the dragon's path and risked getting toasted.

The dragon looked at the human creature almost with amusement. She was waiting for him to get closer so she could roast him like a marshmellow. Dumbo Boy, as Harry called him, tried to get closer and thought that his luck was holding as the dragon wasn't doing anything but looking at him. Maybe he had scared her with his impressive spell work. He hid behind a large rock and threw the strongest spell he could muster. It hit the dragon on the side but bounced off of her – and hit the chain that held her. It was only one link, but it sufficed to weaken the chain as Ron tried to get closer.

Then Ron heard the sound of something breaking and when the dragon pulled the chain out of its tether and – VIOLA – there was a loose and very dangerous dragon looking directly at Ronald Bilius Weasley. If a dragon could smile, by the look on her face she probably was. She roared so loud that you could hear a window or two breaking at the Castle. Then she rose up to the sky and began to soar, blasting fire at those damnable humans.

For the moment it seemed that she was ignoring Ron as she headed towards the stands of spectators. But she only circled so that she could do a good dive and get that human and give a good scare to the other humans. She could hear their screams and saw some of them rushing down the stands and running for their lives. She knew she couldn't stay as they were using the powerful sticks to try and hurt and restrain her. The ones who imprisoned her and her kind were already gathering the tools used to subjugate the dragons and she knew she didn't have much time left before she was overcome by them.

However, she couldn't resist throwing a wave of fire at them before turning and diving towards the human who tried to hurt her eggs.

Ron was still lurking around the huge rock he had used as a shield – or rather he was frozen in fright but even Godric Gryffindor would be scared. As the dragon got closer, he decided to run for it hoping to get away. He could see the dragon handlers led by Charlie and followed by Bill mobilizing and casting their spells and using the specialized nets spelled and reinforced to subdue a dragon.

Ron had never run as fast as he did then (not that he was in the habit of running or doing any exercise other than playing Quidditch). The dragon got closer but so did the rescuers. Although not a damsel in distress, Murphy's Law kicked in again and Ron tripped as the dragon neared him. But he heard Bill's Sonorized voice yell "Hang on Ron, we're almost there."

Before the dragon could spit out her fire, the nets were thrown over her and a multitude of spells cast. She was going down. However, this particular dragon was going to swat this human insect and managed to send out a weak blast right at Ron.

It hit him, dead on.

****

Many people had been injured during the panicked "retreat" as well as some who were burnt. Four people died on the spot and six others within hours due to their injuries. Since Poppy Pomfrey was the only healer allowed (by Dumbledore's command), those who might have lived or survived without a long and painful recuperation, had to wait until the healers from St. Mungo's arrived.

Naturally, there were investigations done and Dumbledore had to answer some very difficult questions concerning the Tournament, especially only allowing one medi-witch to treat injuries. There was talk, led by Lucius Malfoy who broke a leg while escaping and then was trampled, to remove Dumbledore from all of his many positions but most especially as Headmaster of the school.

Using his usual tactics, calling in favors and a bit of blackmail (such as demanding that Lucius go under Veritaserum and be questioned about a certain diary), Dumbledore survived with all positions intact. However, he would be watched and his behavior and running of the school would be closely monitored. Fudge volunteered his personal Undersecretary, Delores Umbridge, to do this last job and she gleefully accepted the "challenge" and informed the Powers that Be that she could start immediately.

Was Ron among the dead? Well yes and no. Although he didn't receive a full blast, he did suffer third-degree burns, had broken bones, his hair was singed off and an important appendage actually melted away (one guess what***). He survived as long as he did only because Madam Pomfrey was the first person to reach him and with Bill's help, Ron was stabilized and put in stasis until he could be properly treated. Bill conjured a stretcher and gently spelled Ron on it and took him to the Infirmary while Pomfrey treated the others and St. Mungo's healers could arrive.

Arthur had unspelled Molly and they made their way to the Infirmary after seeing Bill take Ron away. But he had to re-spell her once they arrived as Molly was hysterical, vowing terrible vengeance and demanding potions and other supplies so that she personally could treat and "save her baby boy" which probably would have killed him sooner.

But Ron somehow lingered on for two excruciating days or long enough to be interrogated by Dumbledore in the presence of his parents, other family members, Cornelius Fudge, Madam Bones, the other school Heads and somehow Lucius had managed to weasel his way in. A certain beetle had also snuck in and got all of the gory details.

He admitted that he had severely injured Harry Potter so that he could not participate in the first task and steal Ron's fame, glory and all that lovely money. "I wanted him to lose his magic and avenge myself for all of the insults and other garbage I had to put up with. He wasn't going to steal what was rightfully mine."

"You do know that he would also lose his life if he didn't participate and still may" Dumbledore stated. "Even if he comes out of his coma, he might be permanently damaged and you could be charged with attempted or actual murder."

"Yes, Weasley deserves to be sent to Azkaban for life if anything happens to…Potter" said Lucius Malfoy.

Naturally a fight broke out between Lucius and Molly, who had to be pulled off the wizard and subdued by Aurors.

All that Ron said was "It isn't fair! Potter gets everything and doesn't deserve to live let alone prosper. I hope he does die and I AM NOT GOING TO AZKABAN OVER THE LIKES OF THAT HALF-BLOOD SON OF A MUDBLOOD WHORE."

Was Ron correct? Again yes and no. Yes he wasn't going to Azkaban and no as his injuries (not to mention his morale) had quickly deteriorated and on the third day after the first task Ronald Bilius Weasley, the Fourth Champion succumbed in agony and shame due to his injuries.

*I know Fleur went first, but I have set my own order so poor Mrs. Diggory can be revived.

** American slang meaning to fondle someone sexually, especially in a surreptitious way or without their permission.

***A request by a few of the voters.


	11. Chapter 11 - The Lawsuits

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 11 – The Lawsuits

Harry Potter had a massive headache. Well actually it was Tom in Harry's body but he was almost willing to believe that the probably long-digested soul of the real Harry – if any trace of it had survived – would have the same pain as Tom was now experiencing.

Then, for some strange reason, he started thinking about Dementors and all that he knew about them. There wasn't much information on the creatures other than what the general public knew, which wasn't much as the public feared the creatures too much to investigate. But that was the public; unless it directly affected them or someone close to them (or any business they owned or were employed in), they were perfectly happy to ignore anything "unpleasant" or dangerous.

That was one of the reasons why Tom had been able to start his crusade. The Ministry officials only cared about keeping their positions or getting promoted – and how much money would _secretly_ find its way into their coffers. Those in power liked it that way and it had been going on ever since the Ministry was founded in 1707 and there was no sign that it would change.

Had Tom's crusade been successful he would have changed many things – much to the surprise of his followers. Only truly qualified persons would have a Ministry job and as for Hogwarts…. It would be brought back to its former glory which one Albus Dumbledore had ruined even before he became Headmaster. Once he assumed that position, it was downhill all of the way and only Tom really knew why, but even in his days of power, no one would have believed him.

Once the real Harry's soul had been taken and Tom had assumed the boy's body and identity, his original plan had been to bide his time until Harry's body was healed of all of the abuse and neglect he had suffered at the hands of the Dursleys (and at Hogwarts), have Sirius Black proclaimed innocent and get custody of his godson (now Tom) and with Sirius' protection, money and influence start to bring down Dumbledore.

Having lived in Harry's brain and magical core for twelve years, Tom had witnessed all that Harry had had to endure at the Dursleys due to Dumbledore's version of the Greater Good and then at Hogwarts. He kept the boy on such a tight lease that he would never know his true position and power in the world, the money and properties he possessed, the real friends and/or allies he could have (and should have) made and the decent life that was his right.

But then Sirius Black had to be…Sirius Black. He was a toady to Dumbledore as was James Potter and other members of the Order of the Phoenix. Although Dumbledore had refused the office of Minister of Magic many times because all he wanted was to be an educator, if that were true he wouldn't be holding the positions of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Grand Sorcerer of Magical Britain.

When they had first come to Paris and after he and Remus had finally gotten an extremely drunk Sirius into the safety of his bed and Remus had gone to sleep, Tom had taken the opportunity to legitimize Sirius. He had found out a lot of interesting information, such as the oaths Sirius, James, Remus and others had made when they became members of the Order of the Phoenix to obey Albus Dumbledore in all things.

One thing of interest was that Albus would "allow" him to have custody of Harry BUT only under certain conditions. That was why he couldn't get his glasses replaced or have contact lenses or learn how to be a Lord of the House of Potter and Sirius would have free reign to turn Harry into a clone of James. In other words, it would seem to the world that Sirius would be Harry's guardian and heir and under Sirius' control. However, in reality, Dumbledore still controlled Harry via Sirius, had access to the boy's trust fund and Sirius would be contributing to the Order of the Phoenix.

After having Ron's name come out of the Goblet of Fire, Tom felt safe. But he should have known better with Albus involved. Tom had to admit that having his name coming out of the Goblet just hours before the first task was to start was a stroke of genius. Before Andromeda could be summoned, with a copy of the old and new set of rules, and fight against this latest outrage, Tom would already be forced to participate. The old rules had said that once someone participated in the first task, they were bound to take part in the other tasks. In other words, they were stuck.

But "fortunately" (sort of) Dumbo Boy had immediately attacked not only verbally but physically and had did enough damage to not only prevent him from participating in the first task, but due to the injuries he had received he was unconscious for two days. Then he had awaken but pretended to be asleep so that he could listen in to the conversations taking place.

He heard about the injuries of the three real champions and all but Cedric had been released when Tom woke up. The most noise was coming from the Weasleys because apparently Dumbo Boy had been seriously wounded (hooray) and it took him three torturous (well only one for Tom) for him to die. There was moaning and groaning coming from Ron (who believed in expressing the pain he was in) but it was Molly who was making most of the noise.

She was acting like a typical mother worried about her injured son BUT she was also giving interviews to _The Daily Prophet_ and other news media (despite Dumbledore ordering her not to) telling about the life of her precious son (highly inflating his talents, popularity and good behavior). Alas, anybody with eyes knew the kid wasn't going to survive much longer (even Molly) but she was not going to let him _"go gentle into that good night…rage, rage against the dying of the light"*_ at least not while there was breath in her body.

During the interviews, Molly was blaming EVERYBODY, starting with the lack of proper treatment by Poppy Pomfrey, then the healers from St. Mungo's were chastised, the treachery of Harry Potter (which at the moment no one could rationalize what she meant by that) and for the lack of the necessary training that the STAFF OF HOGWARTS failed to give (even though it was a rule of the Tournament that the staff couldn't help). The Tournament Committee was blamed for putting the Champions in a too dangerous a situation – especially an underage boy like her Ronnie.

Anything she could think of Molly said to anybody who would listen (and those who wouldn't but were trapped). She said whatever popped into her head and only the reporters took notice. As one of them stated "She has the worst case of foot into mouth disease I ever came across."

Then Ron finally died and one would think that a banshee had entered the room as the wail of grief let out by Molly would scare a Dementor (and maybe even kill a Basilisk).

Mercifully (for others) someone stunned Molly and then Poppy spelled a dreamless sleep potion into her stomach leaving poor Arthur to make the funeral arrangements.

Tom was still playing dead and was not being bothered (too much) as he was in a private, curtained off area in the Infirmary but some determined reporters and photographers tried to sneak in for pictures and interviews until the Aurors stopped them and put up temporary wards to keep all out of the area except for Poppy and the St. Mungo's healers. Since Amelia Bones had taken charge of the investigation, Dumbledore was also excluded. He considered it insulting but the St. Mungo's people backed Amelia.

"It is still unknown if Harry Potter has lost his magic for not taking part in the last minute call to participate in the first task" Amelia had told him. "He was seriously wounded and is in a healing coma – for the moment. If he dies, then it is because he lost his magic and thus his life."

However, Dumbles had an excuse already prepared.

"Surely you must remember that when Harry's name came out of the Goblet, the parchment said that originally Harry was to be the fourth champion but someone had replaced Harry's name with Ronald Weasley's. Thus, it may be assumed that since Harry is still alive, it is because Ronald took his place for the first task. Such a thing is allowed if the champion was injured before he could compete but as soon as he was well, he would have to compete in the other tasks – or lose his life and magic."

"And which set of rules are you referring to" said a voice filled with anger and ready to do battle with the Greatest Wizard since Merlin. "The real rules, or the ones recently made by _**someone**_ , and my money's on YOU ALBUS DUMBLEDORE" spat out Andromeda Tonks, or the "witch from hell" as Albus always called her.

"HOW DARE YOU BESMIRSH MY GOOD NAME" Dumbles shouted. Before he could shout out anything else, Andy beat him to it.

She was holding up in each hand a copy the OLD rules and the NEW rules. She was furious that she had had to learn about Harry's injuries and his last minute entry into the Tournament NOT by the school but getting tipped off from a friend. No wonder Harry had asked her and the Goblins to research the Tournament – especially the rules.

She was risking much to accuse the respected, adored and in some cases, worshiped old coot but she didn't come alone. Amelia Bones and a few Aurors were waiting outside the Infirmary – disillusioned just to be safe – as well as the Goblin in charge of the Potter account and a few Goblin guards, in case they were needed. They were, as Albus did a few quick spells catching everyone off guard and they were all stunned.

"Now to deal with these tiresome rules and do a few obliviations" he smirked. Since he had said it out loud (because he liked the sound of his own voice) he levitated both set of rules from Andy's hands and was about to destroy them when he was unexpectedly stunned, dropped his wand and fell to the floor with a large thud. It was then those waiting cancelled their spells and one of the Goblin conjured up some rather large chains and tightly wrapped them around the old wizard.

Those he had spelled were revived, told what had just happened and Andy happily watched the Great Albus Dumbledore being levitated over to the Infirmary floo to be taken to the Ministry for questioning.

Poppy and the healer checked on Harry to find him awake and asking what was going on. Poppy gently told him about his injuries, Ron's injuries and death and what Dumbledore had just tried to do. Being the excellent actor that he was, Tom put on a shocked face, then a sad one and then a justifiably angry face, asking that Andy start proceedings to level a lawsuit against Albus Dumbledore.

"I want him punished for what he has done" Harry spat out. "He has caused me nothing but grief and…HE IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE for Ron's death" he said gloomily.

Unknown to everyone present, Molly had awaken, kept quiet for once in her life so she could eavesdrop on the various conversations and made a decision. She wouldn't (and couldn't) sue Dumbledore, but she COULD and WOULD sue Harry Potter for the death of her son and, in turn, get on Dumbledore's good side defending him against the slander of fixing the rules. He would help her get a wonderful settlement and for once _**he would owe her.**_

Rita Skeeter was in hog heaven and her editor was filled with joy due to all of the yummy slanders, accusations, mysteries and the lawsuits filed against several individuals, such as Dumbledore, the four Heads of House of Hogwarts and the Headmaster and Headmistress of the two other schools involved. Starting with Ludo Bagman, a few other dignitaries at the British Ministry were subpoenaed (and shocked when they couldn't get out of going) and there were many investigations going on and many people extremely worried – and with good reason.

But the best lawsuits involved Harry Potter and his guardian/attorney, Andromeda Tonks. They were suing Albus Dumbledore who started it all by suing Andromeda for slander. They were counter suing for changing the rules of the Tournament, and accusing Dumbles of putting a fake entry the morning of the first task to force Harry into the Tournament and, just to be thorough, for endangering the school since Harry's first year.

Molly volunteered to be a witness for Dumbles if he would try her case or act as her attorney in her suit. She was suing Harry for causing Ron's death and several other ridiculous accusations which would definitely be thrown out before trial _**unless**_ Dumbledore or one of his minions heard the case. She knew she would win, even after she was told that Dumbledore had to recuse himself, being a defendant in Harry's case. However he assured her that he would provide a "cut throat" lawyer to hear her case and use his influence to appoint a judge amenable to her case.

"You WILL WIN Molly" Dumbles told her "Just as sure as my good name will be cleared!"

But would they win? Will Molly get the ridiculous amount she was asking as well as a few other unreasonable and non-negotiable demands? She was already spending the money in her head and deciding which of the Potters' many properties she would be moving her family into and what jewels and priceless artifacts Potter would be forced to turn over to her. Of course, she would need a complete list of all Potter possessions before she made her final decisions, but she could wait because her trial would soon be over and she could choose anything (and as much of) she wanted – because Dumbledore promised.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten out of tighter spots before this trivial matter and was certain he would survive the cruel and unwarranted publicity. Then he would…handle…Harry Potter and make the boy regret ever defying the Greatest Wizard since Merlin.

*Excerpt from a poem by Dylan Thomas (no relation to Dean Thomas).


	12. Chapter 12 - Thou Shalt Not Be Too Smug

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 12 – Thou Shalt Not Be Too Smug

Harry "Tom" Potter was in seventh heaven as it seemed that all of his plans had come to a delightful conclusion.

Sirius Black had been tamed and would soon be suffering from a rather tragic and quite nasty (hopefully embarrassing) accident courtesy of one of Tom's personal house elves.

Ronald Weasley had died in agony and shame, and his mother had spectacularly lost her lawsuits. Due to his deathbed confession in front of all of those important witnesses, her case had not been heard as it had been quickly (and justifiably) thrown out. Dumbledore had been unable to keep his promises to Molly (or to anybody else but what else was new) as he was in more trouble than he thought and this time, would not be able to use his usual ways to survive.

It happened when he was pleading his case in the slander suit against Andromeda Tonks and Harry Potter. Over the years, he had always skillfully avoided taking Veritaserum as he was the Greatest Wizard since Merlin, Leader of the Light, the hero who defeated Grindelwald, the venerated Headmaster of Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Grand Sorcerer. He had a phoenix as a familiar as proof of his goodness, purity of mind and soul, honor and nobility. He had led and "won wars" using the shield and weapons of goodness, honor, Gryffindor bravery and his own powerful magic.

Once, someone had demanded that he take Veritaserum but he refused, citing the above-listed accomplishments and powerful positions. He had been greatly insulted that HIS WORD would not be believed, gave a rather lengthy and pompous speech and, probably due to boredom and desperation to get on with things, he had evaded taking the infallible truth serum.

However, due to his oaths to Dumbledore, Severus Snape had orders, from the great wizard himself, to develop a potion which would negate the effects of Veritaserum AND would be undetectable. So far, Snape had been unable to accomplish this feat as Dumbledore kept him so very busy creating other new potions for his personal use, brewing certain…unethical…potions Dumbledore needed as their sale was illegal and making all of the potions and salves needed for the Infirmary (to save money which then went into a "special" school fund handled by Dumbledore). Poor Snape also was forced to "teach" Potions and had duties as head of Slytherin as well as anything else Dumbles thought up.

That was why a certain tactic – proposed by Harry (as Tom did know his Dumbledore better than anyone else now living) which, although risky, would be done first and the need for it explained later.

After Albus had given his brilliant opening statement, he sat and smugly listened to Ted Tonks (who was also a lawyer but mostly in the Muggle World) give his opening statement in defense of his wife and Harry Potter. Albus thought it was truly pitiful, especially after his superb preamble, but Ted Tonks was a Muggleborn of limited intelligence and power, so his opening _might_ gain a few pity points.

Then the court called Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore to the stand to be questioned by Ted Tonks. After he had sat down, Amelia Bones stunned him, letting him sit upright in his seat, did a quick medical scan for potions and spells which Albus had on him, summoned his wand and then force you-know-what on his tongue before reviving him. Naturally there were cries of outrage and demands that this _atrocity_ should be stopped immediately.

It was then Tiberius Ogden, acting as the chief judge of the Wizengamot, lit his wand and ordered silence. "Due to the known actions and tactics of the Plaintiff, I have allowed these actions. Madam Bones, what does the scan show?"

"To my knowledge, there is no counter-potion for Veritaserum in his system but I will need an expert to determine the ones that are."

"Mr. Tonks, you may begin your examination of the Plaintiff" Ogden said.

Ted Tonks started asking questions pertinent to the case at hand, such as "Did you put any name in the Goblet of Fire whether it was to choose the fourth champion or on the morning of the first task to have Harry Potter participate?"

"No to the first question but yes to the second?"

"Why." "Do you know who did put Ronald Weasley's name in?"

"Yes and no."

"Explain."

"Yes I knew that someone was going to put Harry's name in the Goblet but not why Ronald's name came out instead."

It was at this moment that Mad-Eye Moody made a sneaky and speedy escape and once outside the courtroom and used his emergency portkey to "leave town fast" as the Muggles say. He appeared in (still in his Moody persona) Voldemort's lair and quickly explained things.

"You were correct, as usual, my Lord" Barty said. "Dumbles did know about my disguise and mission, but was just as shocked as I when Weasley's name came out instead of Potter's. I regret leaving before hearing his further answers, but it was necessary to save myself and the secret plans you have."

"It was the only logical action and no doubt the news media will give an in-depth report. Are you still in contact with your elf?"

"Yes, my Lord. Winky is acting like a depressed, alcoholic elf and thus is able to sneak around the school unnoticed by even the other house elves who consider her a disgrace. I will summon her tonight to give a report of what is _really_ happening."

"Good. Now I must make new plans for my resurrection and it is best that we leave here and go to another bolt hole just in case Albadass discovered where I have been hiding." With that said, they quickly packed and fled to Barty's old bolt hole and waited.

Back at the trial, Ted asked the Greatest Wizard since Merlin some of the questions that so many other had always wanted to ask, but only after he had asked all the questions about the Tournament. Veritaserum only lasted for about 15 minutes and then couldn't be administered for several hours, hence the rush. Then the potion wore off and a very irate Dumbledore shouted his outrage.

"SHUT UP" an even angrier Ogden yelled. Albus was shocked for a moment and then began a tirade against the violation of his rights and positions, or did until he was silenced and bound by Ogden.

Ogden turned to Ted and stated, "No doubt you would like to request that another round of Veritaserum be administered and it will, but not at this trial. I ask the Wizengamot to vote to dismiss Dumbledore's slander case against Andromeda Tonks and Harry Potter, awarding them reasonable costs and damages."

A vote was taken and unanimously granted the dismissal. Then Ogden and the other two judges announced that Albus Dumbledore would stand trial starting tomorrow to answer further questions under Veritaserum concerning past deeds and why he had always withheld that damning information about Voldemort's existence in wraith form and allowing – and apparently abetting - the plot to use Harry Potter to resurrect him.

It was the beginning of the end of Albus Dumbledore's career. After seven horrendous days of Veritaserum, questions, answers and testimony by the entire staff of Hogwarts, certain Ministry personnel such as Fudge, Barty Crouch, Sr. (who Dumbledore had outed that his supposedly dead son had been impersonating Moody) and members of the Order of the Phoenix such as Molly Weasley, Remus Lupin, Dedalus Diggle and, surprise, surprise, the three Dursleys and the instructions (and money) they had received from Dumbledore on how to "raise the boy to be extremely humble, downtrodden and punished."

On the sixth day, Lucius Malfoy got the surprise of his life when it was revealed that he had placed a cursed diary in Ginny Weasley's cauldron and it forced her to release a Basilisk in a school full of children. He was given Veritaserum (much to the delight of many) confessed that he had done it and no, he and others hadn't been under the Imperious and thus forced to join Voldemort. Much like Barty, Jr.'s escape, the other who had pled the same as Lucius were tipped off and the "smart ones" fled for their lives, with as much money as possible, leaving their families behind. No doubt it was to live (and flee) to fight another day when their Lord resurrected.

However, some, such as Crabbe and Goyle, delayed and were found, tried and went to Azkaban with Lucius, who now dwelled in the same cell which had housed Sirius Black – right across from his dear sister-in-law. She was fully briefed about the _mischief_ Lucius had been up to for the last 13 or so years and after she and the other imprisoned Death Eaters heard about (some) of the _naughtiness_ Lucius had done, well let's just say that Lucius preferred the company of the Dementors than his in-laws and comrades.

After the trial finally ended, Albus Dumbledore was completely ruined. So much had been discovered by the truth serum that his reputation could never be recovered. Unspeakables had been looking into the potions which were found in his system and all but three were pronounced as being _very dark_ and could only be brewed by a Potions Master.

Before he could fully testify, Snape informed the court that he had been forced to brew certain potions for Dumbledore's personal use but was under an unbreakable oath "For his protection certainly not mine. Also, several staff members are under other oaths so that we could never testify against him. Only he can release us so that we can truly give the correct evidence."

Dumbledore refused – unless he received something in return. He was told no, as there was already enough evidence, and by his own mouth, to convict him for several lifetimes.

"However" he was told if you release these unfortunate pawns from these oaths, you will receive a life sentence in Azkaban instead of the Kiss" the judges said.

Dumbledore couldn't believe this was happening to him. "But you need me to finally end the threat of Voldemort as only I can defeat him. It is for the Greater Good that I be free…."

"Oh, are you referring to the wraith which you have known about for years and risked the lives and safety of an entire school of children to lure him to Hogwarts so that Harry Potter could confront him, possibly die, all because YOU WANTED TO GET THE GLORY OF DEFEATING ANOTHER DARK LORD."

"Tiberius, my dear boy" Albus began only to be interrupted.

"I haven't been a boy for decades and only my mother called me her dear boy…because I was. You have no right to call me by my first name, let alone by the sobriquet that you have used for who knows how long to insult and embarrass someone and doing it to confuse or change the subject."

"But Tiberius."

"No buts. I am a judge, you are a defendant in a trial for your very life so again I say SHUT UP." He then once again silenced Dumbledore.

The verdict was nearly unanimous, and the punishment was as Ogden said: release the pawns from their oaths and serve a lifetime in Azkaban or don't and receive the Kiss. Thinking that he could be released from Azkaban, either by public demand to defeat Voldemort, or rescued by his faithful followers, he chose his life and gave freedom to the others.

But would he? Where there is life there is hope and Albus Dumbledore was still scheming as he entered the famous hell hole of Azkaban.

Since Ron had died competing in the Tournament, Barty was absolved from losing his magic. "Harry" definitely didn't have to compete because Dumbledore's criminal manipulations did not legally bind him as only when the Goblet initially chose the champions was someone forced to compete.

Dumbledore entered Azkaban a few days before the Christmas ball. Originally Tom wasn't going to the ball but now he was in a festive mood and since Dumbledore was gone he hadn't a care in the world so he thought he'd celebrate. They never had balls at Hogwarts when he attended due to the war – both of them. Austerity was the byword during those years but due to his poverty he would have to borrow the proper clothes that is if someone would be kind enough to loan him some, so he was glad the occasion never arose.

He took Susan Bones, as he considered her one of the best looking girls in the school and she was developing some very nice womanly curves in all the right places.

The Weasley Twins tried to bully him into taking Ginny but he refused. They did the same with Neville but he also refused and instead took Luna Lovegood. Hermione had been asked by Victor Krum and a good time was had by all. Except for certain Slytherins.

Draco Malfoy was in a lot of trouble in his House. He was being blamed for his father's outing of the imperious excuse and despite Lucius' own incarceration, Draco was being blamed for his housemate's relatives who were now in Azkaban or had fled. Due to this, he had lost whatever power he had had (which had been mostly based on the Malfoy name and fear of his father). He chose to skip the ball and go home for the holidays. He was seriously thinking of asking his mother to transfer him to another school, but not Beauxbatons or Darmstadt as he was too well known to attend those schools.

Harry had had such a good time with Susan that he invited her to go to Hogsmeade with him. Hermione was going with Victor and Neville with Luna. They were all having a good times, had lunch at the Three Broomsticks and then went shopping. All was right with the world in Tom's opinion.

But Tom had forgotten two things: Harry Potter's lack of (good) luck and Murphy's Law. Coming out of Honeydukes with his arms loaded with treats, he was unable to hold Susan's hand. That was when a disillusioned Barty grabbed hold of the boy and portkeyed Harry away before anyone could help.

One guess where they were going?

The End

There will be a sequel to this story when I finish some of the other ones. Thanks for reading.


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